Cross Jurisdictional Tolling of the Statute of Limitations In Antitrust Claims: Plaintiffs Lose Their Day in Federal Court

How great is the divide between federal and state courts when state law mirrors federal law? Can federal courts improve judicial efficiency by extending the statute of limitations for federal antitrust claims based on concurrent state antitrust class actions? The Seventh Circuit's recent attempt at docket control in In re Copper Antitrust Litigation refused to accept this counter intuitive approach. This article addresses the effect of the Seventh Circuit's decision, which actually decreased judicial efficiency by encouraging state antitrust class action members to file duplicative claims in federal court despite identical state and federal antitrust statutory schemes.