The chances of winning a whistleblower suit against the U.S. government are expected to become slimmer, thanks to a recent Department of Justice memo highlighting the government’s right to dismiss False Claims Act cases when it declines to participate.

U.S. attorneys around the country are expected to make more frequent use of their statutory authority to dismiss marginal False Claims Act cases in light of a Jan. 10 memo in which the head of the agency’s fraud division offered guidelines on when to take such actions, according to lawyers who handle those cases. And that action could scare away some plaintiffs from filing such cases, they said.