Antitrust laws adopted by federal and state governments regulate trade and commerce. Under these laws, price-fixing, monopolies and unlawful restraints are forbidden. Antitrust laws also serve to promote competition and pricing goods and services at reasonable prices to safeguard public welfare.
Enforcing antitrust laws is accomplished by the Federal Trade Commission, which can issue cease and desist orders to violators, and the Department of Justice, which can bring criminal complaints. Private parties can file civil lawsuits against offenders.
Antitrust is an expansive and difficult area of law. You will need the services of an attorney who is well-versed in antitrust legislation and experienced handling antitrust cases both in federal court and in your state’s court.
Antitrust attorneys represent private parties who have grievances with other parties over fair competition and trade practices. They can represent a party bringing legal action or defending a party who has been civilly sued or criminally prosecuted.
Antitrust statutes are written in general language and do not have meaning that is practical until courts enforce them in particular situations that are tried and decided, which is called case law.
To you, this means that your antitrust lawyer knows case law and the legal theory behind court decisions as well as antitrust economics.
Your antitrust attorney will develop facts and evidence supporting your contention in careful and thoughtful review of the circumstances involved and the applicable statutes and case law. Your attorney likely will have extensive work to build your case or defense and organize its presentation.
Your attorney also will need to take extensive complex and technical information and present it in a manner that lay persons on a jury can understand and follow your argument and the reasoning behind it.
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