Call Today: (800) 496-1179
Submit your Whistleblower claim details for a free, no obligation case review
Get Started:
A corporate whistleblower is an individual who has the courage to speak up about illegal business conduct at his or her company. The term may be distinguished from, say, a government whistleblower, but the principal is the same — someone observes conduct that is in violation of laws or regulations, and then "blows the whistle" to alert the proper authorities.
The term "blowing the whistle" harks back to the days when English bobbies (police officers) carried whistles to use when they observed a crime in progress. Corporations, in their pursuit of profits, may be particularly prone to abuses of the law. The "diffusion of responsibility" that the corporate structure provides may also allow wrongdoing where it would otherwise not occur.
Corporate whistleblowing has a long and storied history. The current forms of corporations in the U.S. have been around since before the turn of the 20th century, and modern corporate law provides very well-established statutes, rules and regulations that corporations must follow regarding their business practices. Corporate whistleblowers help keep corporations from acting unlawfully.
Most Americans are familiar with a few famous whistleblowers, even if they can't give the name of the particular whistleblowers. Typical examples could be described as "the guy who blew the whistle on the tobacco companies," "the woman who blew the whistle on the nuclear plant where she was working (and maybe got killed for doing so)," and "the accountant who blew open the fraud at Enron."
This recognition of corporate whistleblowers (Jeffrey Wigand, Karen Silkwood, and Sherron Watkins in the above examples) attests to the importance and admiration our society attaches to courageously telling the truth, especially when it puts the individual at risk of retaliation.
If you're an employee of a corporation, whether a tiny, local concern or a global conglomerate, and you observe illegal business conduct, you can check for a corporate whistleblower hotline in your state, or go directly to a law firm that represents corporate whistleblowers. An experienced whistleblower attorney can make sure that your legal rights are protected before, during and after the process of coming forward with evidence that your employer has broken laws or regulations.
Corporate law and state/federal whistleblower statutes are complex, and many attorneys choose not to deal with this field of law. To speak with an attorney experienced in handling whistleblower cases, please contact us today.
Copyright © 2001 - 2010 Online Lawyer Source | Legal Marketing Site Designed by eJustice