Every golfer’s dream hit is a hole-in-one – that elusive maneuver in which the ball soars high, dodges trees and other obstacles and miraculously lands in its intended destination without wasting any time. This triumph is exactly what every whistleblower should aim for when filing a whistleblower claim with the Securities and Exchange Commission… and without the right guidance, it’s just as unlikely to happen as a hole-in-one.

Statistically, you’re chances are about the same.

Since its inception, there have been approximately 15,000 SEC whistleblower claims filed with the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower, and that number is increasing every year. Essentially, your claim – on its own – has a 1 in 15,000 chance of standing out among the many claims that are tossed at the organization each year. The odds of hitting a hole-in-one? You guessed it – about 1 in 15,000.

The first hurdle your whistleblower claim has to overcome is being seen. Without first catching the eyes of SEC attorneys, your SEC whistleblower filing doesn’t stand a chance, and without a skilled whistleblower attorney to help you craft your claim, you’ll be waiting forever for that miracle shot.

Want to increase your odds of a successful whistleblower filing? You wouldn’t expect to hit a hole-in-one without some guidance, and without the help of a whistleblower attorney, your claim likely will not be aggressively pursued if it is pursued at all.

Skill. Plain and simple, skill will get you far both in golf and in successfully filing a whistleblower claim with the SEC. Seek out a skilled team of whistleblower attorneys with the credentials and credibility to help develop your allegations and legal analysis and then assist you in your filing. Look for a law firm with significant resources that will invest the time and energy into your case for the long haul. Many firms advertising as “SEC whistleblower” lawyers have no background in securities or financial fraud litigation at all. Many will be little more than a deliveryperson for your information, adding very little to what you already bring to the table.

Our whistleblower team brings decades of knowledge to the complex areas of securities and financial fraud regulation, as well as Dodd-Frank and related regulations governing whistleblower law, and our forensic accountants are adept in helping our team expertly research, develop and advocate your SEC whistleblower claim.

Reputation. The reputation of the law firm and lawyers you select is incredibly important. It is the first thing the SEC or other government agency will see when a government attorney picks up your complaint. You want the help of someone with credibility. Who better to learn from than an attorney who has hit a hole-in-one several times? When Hagens Berman files a claim with the government, it gets attention. Our firm has worked alongside government officials and regulators for more than 20 years, bolstering our credibility to bring important securities and other financial fraud matters to the light of day.

In filing your case with the government, having a whistleblower team that knows the ropes is critical. Hagens Berman’s team has litigated significant securities cases for over 20 years. This experience includes cases against such giants as Visa, MasterCard, Charles Schwab, entities implicated by the Madoff Scandal, and other large companies with complex financial instruments and investments, such as mortgage-backed securities.

We filed some of the first SEC whistleblower cases and our whistleblower legal team has gone on to handle multiple, successful SEC whistleblower cases, including the high-profile SEC fraud whistleblower case brought by HFT whistleblower and market expert, Haim Bodek (twice covered on the front page of The Wall Street Journal). That case prompted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to bring record-breaking fines against two exchanges formerly owned by Direct Edge Holdings (and since acquired by Bats Global Markets, the second-largest financial exchange in the country). The exchanges paid millions to settle charges that the exchanges failed to accurately and completely disclose how order types functioned on its exchanges and for selectively providing such information only to certain high-frequency trading firms.

Timing. Time is one of the biggest (and sometimes simplest) determining factors in a successful whistleblower case. It’s important to report fraud as soon as possible because securities and related laws are time sensitive, and if stalled, your whistleblower claim runs the risk of failure simply based on the passage of time. Also, when evaluating a whistleblower case and planning a potential reward for the whistleblower, the amount of time between your awareness of the fraud and your reporting of the fraud plays a part in determining an award amount. Whistleblower filings are serious decisions, however, and whistleblowers need to have confidence that what they’ve witnessed or have knowledge of, is indeed fraud. Our firm provides clients with timely information and helps reach those determinations together with them.

Good Conditions. Your golf game won’t be its best in adverse conditions, and your whistleblower claim with the SEC won’t have a good shot either if you don’t sufficiently develop your “original” and “voluntary” information for the SEC Enforcement Unit. An experienced securities whistleblower lawyer will help you develop and then file your claim in the best way possible to help ensure that action (and reward) come from your reporting fraud.

Your whistleblower attorney will help vet, research and develop your case to ensure your claim has the best chance possible to bring you a maximum reward. Whistleblowers take great risks when reporting fraud, so when you choose to blow the whistle on securities fraud, you want to make sure that you’re putting your best case forward. Expert legal advice can pave the way.

But Most Importantly… you can’t win if you don’t play. Fraud in trading and pricing, unlawful schemes, misstatements in financial filings and various other forms of securities fraud are serious, and without being reported, these serious crimes threaten markets across the globe

If you believe you have witnessed securities fraud, contact a whistleblower attorney to make the first move and file your SEC whistleblower claim.