What known today as Lincoln’s Law is officially named False Claims Act (FCA). It was passed by the US Congress in 1863 and this law created rewards for private individuals reporting government fraud attempting curbs a rash of fraud against government.  This Law started to be referred as Lincoln’s Law as well as Informer’s Law as it was signed by President Lincoln on March 2, 1863. The original version of FCA orders that any act designed to fraudulently obtain money from the government is strictly prohibited.

The history of FCA was dated back on the Civil War era and it was initially intend to eliminate various frauds against United States Army and that was the reason why this law initially focused on fraud committed by military contractors. However, FCA coverage was expanded to all frauds committed by all government contractors. The contractors being courted under this law becomes subject of both civil and criminal sentences. The amount of fine for each fraudulent claim was double of amount the government’s actual damages plus additional fine of $2000.

The 1863 FCA gives opportunities for private individuals to get incentive as they reported unnoticed fraudulent actions against government through a “qui tam “action. This is the time where a qui tam attorney is very needed by the individuals. The informer also known as relators will be given incentive half of total recovery from the case they reported. The main concept of 1863 incentive was promoting private enforcement of legal legislation through economic incentives. Just like other laws, there are several amendments made to this law to make it relevant to present condition in 1986. Through those amendments, the government could recover almost $22 billion between 1987 and 2008.