The 1986 amendments set the range of civil penalties for violations of the False Claims Act (“FCA”) from $5,000 to $10,000, in addition to trebling actual damages.
In 1990, the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act (“FCPIAA”) was enacted to adjust federal fines and penalties to the rate of inflation. The FCPIAA permits inflation adjustments to be made every five years, if needed, to maintain the effectiveness of civil fines and penalties. In 1999, pursuant to the FCPIAA, the Department of Justice increased the range of penalties for FCA violations from $5,500 to $11,000. Like the trebling feature, the penalties authorized under the FCA are mandatory and are not subject to a court’s discretion. Ancestry.com - Genealogy
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Find information about more than 170,000 properties in DC by typing in a propertyaddress or a square, suffix and lot number.Any person over the age of majority and of sound mind (having appropriate mental capacity) can draft his own will with or without the aid of a lawyer. Additional requirements may vary, depending on the jurisdiction, but generally include the following requirements:
- The testator must clearly identify himself as the maker of the will, and that a will is being made; this is commonly called "publication" of the will, and is typically satisfied by the words "last will and testament" on the face of the document.
- The testator should declare that he revokes all previous wills and codicils. Otherwise, a subsequent will revokes earlier wills and codicils only to the extent to which they are inconsistent. However, if a subsequent will is completely inconsistent with an earlier one, the earlier will is considered completely revoked by implication.
- The testator may demonstrate that he has the capacity to dispose of his property ("sound mind"), and does so freely and willingly.
- The testator must sign and date the will, usually in the presence of at least two disinterested witnesses (persons who are not beneficiaries). There may be extra witnesses, these are called "supernumerary" witnesses, if there is a question as to an interested-party conflict. Some jurisdictions, notably Pennsylvania, have long abolished any requirement for witnesses. In the United States, Louisiana requires both attestation by two witnesses as well as notarization by a notary public. "Holographic" or handwritten wills generally require no witnesses to be valid.
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