The number that reflects the vitality of U.S. antitrust is not the
number of 'closings' but the number of new 'filings.' About 400 several
years ago, as I recall. Today? If the young lawyers who're doing the
filing understood the odds, the filing numbers would of course be close to
zero. They get sucked in by reading pre-1975 opinions, back when justice,
fairness, and other such outdated, romantic notions were still around in
antitrust. So they file antitrust complaints, cost their small- business
clients tens of thousands of dollars, lose almost as much themselves, and
emerge wiser--and much older.
Tell us how many plaintiff victories the U.S. courts hand down each
year-- victory meaning a sustained damage award and/or an injunction
effectively stopping a monopolistic practice. Zilch. Nada. Zero, for any
year you want to name, in my experience.
Charles Mueller, Editor
ANTITRUST LAW & ECONOMICS REVIEW
http://webpages.metrolink.net/~cmueller
****************
At 04:33 PM 1/14/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Here is an an anonymous posting:
>
>"The number of civil antitrust cases in federal court
>terminated over the last few years: 651 in fiscal 1995, 665
>in fiscal 1994, and 691 in fiscal 1993. These numbers
>understate the total number of antitrust cases by omitting
>criminal and state court cases. (Statistics from the
>Administrative Office of the US Courts are
>web-searchable on the Judicial Statstical Inquiry Website
>maintained by Professors Eisenberg and Clermont of
>Cornell Law School
>(http://teddy.law.cornell.edu:8090/questata.htm)"
>
>
