Words of the Week: Qui Tam

"Indiana has a civil forfeiture law which says that in a civil forfeiture action, the prosecutor can deduct law enforcement costs including attorney's fees, and the remainder is to be paid to the Common School Fund. In the last 2 years, the 92 counties in Indiana only paid $95,000 into the fund pursuant to the civil forfeiture fund. They kept all the rest of the money."

So, Paul K. Ogden has filed a qui tam lawsuit against 89 of the state's 90 prosecutors. ("A qui tam lawsuit basically is a taxpayer lawsuit to recover state money that was wrongly misappropriated or not paid that should have been paid to the state and was not.")

Marion County is, of course, the biggest scofflaw. Read more on his blog.