May 2015

By Robert A. Clifford, Senior Partner and Lead Counsel in Pella Window Class Action, and Shannon McNulty, Partner, Clifford Law Offices If you have Pella ProLine Casement windows, you may be a member of a class action underway in the Northern District of Illinois. For more information, go to www.CliffordLaw.com/class actions. Q: I have Pella ProLine casement windows, but they are not showing any signs of defect rot. Am I still a class member? What…

Children are most often the victims of dog bites, as evidenced by the recent attack in Chicago of a pit bull that killed an innocent five-year-old child. The story is a terrible tragedy that has been reported in the news for days. Dogs are many times our closest companions and considered one of the family. But any dog can be territorial and unpredictable when it feels threatened or when defending puppies, owners or food. “Our…

More than one third of the nation’s 15,500 nursing homes received relatively low ratings of one or two stars under the federal government’s recently revamped five-star Quality Rating System, according to a new analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation. This number accounts for some 39 percent of all nursing home residents. The rating system is overseen by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and is based on deficiencies that may be reported during health…

Train tank cars that haul fuel need retrofitting as soon as possible to avoid possible explosions, according to a recent study conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) that examines such accidents. A recent story published by the Associated Press (“Safety board: Train fuel tank cars need retrofits – and fast,” by Matthew Brown) explained how the public is not going to be able to wait the 10 years for improvements as the industry…

Premises Liability: Liability of landowners or those who are responsible for maintaining the property for activities or conditions occurring on the land.

“The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example.” – Benjamin Disraeli

This week’s Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia is a tragedy, as is the decades-long failure of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and Amtrak to provide safe, positively controlled rail transportation to patrons across the county, particularly in the Northeast region. As the NTSB and its parties continue to sort through the rubble and uncover what caused this horrific event Tuesday evening, one thing that appears reasonably clear is that the passengers aboard this speeding train, those…

Transportation attorney Kevin Durkin on the legal ramifications of the Amtrak derailment and train crash liability.

News continues round the clock on the tragic train derailment in Philadelphia last night (May 12, 2015) as rescuers continue a search-and-rescue mission into the night for people still reported missing on the manifest. Reporters from around the world are reporting on the fact that the 32-year-old Amtrak engineer of Amtrak Train Number 188 was being interviewed by National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators who have been working at the scene all day, the video…