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  On Wednesday, April 11, 2018, a New Jersey state jury slammed Johnson & Johnson and its talc supplier with combined punitive damages of $80 million after finding that the pharmaceutical giant acted with reckless indifference in selling asbestos-containing talcum powder that contributed to a man’s development of mesothelioma. After awarding last week a $37 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson and the company’s French-based talc supplier, Imerys Talc America Inc. for its talcum powder…

After a $37 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson and the company’s French-based talc supplier, Imerys Talc America, for its talcum powder causing cancer, comes news that the product may contain cancer-causing asbestos particles that the company failed to disclose to the public. Some consumers have been using Johnson & Johnson talc products for years, even using it for babies because the marketing of the product condoned it as safe. Years later, comes word that…

The 24th Annual Clifford Symposium on Tort Law and Social Policy will be held at DePaul University April 19-20 on “Patient Safety: How Might the Law Help?” For two days, two dozen academics, lawyers and medical professionals from around the country will discuss the medical crisis in this country and alternate legal strategies that might encourage greater safety. Among the faculty members are medical professionals including David Studdert, joint professor of Medicine and Law of…

On April 2nd, 2018, Clifford Law Offices named Craig J. Squillace a partner at the firm. Craig J. Squillace, associate at Clifford Law Offices since 2002, was promoted to partner. Squillace, who most recently received a record settlement of $4 million in Will County, concentrates his practice in the area of vehicular and trucking accidents at the personal injury firm. He also has experience in medical malpractice, product liability and municipal liability. Squillace is a…

For the first time in 28 years, jurors in federal court will receive a pay hike of 25 percent. That means that for each day that a person sits as a juror in federal court, he or she will receive a check for $50, up from $40 that has been in effect since 1990. President Trump signed the bill into law that takes effect May 7. The raise was included in a bill that provided…

  Clifford Law Offices has been selected as the 2018 Chicago Legal Clinic (CLC) recipient of the Charles J. O’Laughlin Memorial Award. The firm was recognized at the CLC’s 37th-anniversary fundraising dinner, “A Justice Social,” on May 8th. The award is named for Charles J. O’Laughlin, a founding board member of CLC after he retired as a partner at Jenner & Block. The CLC provides legal services to the underserved and disadvantaged throughout the Chicago…

Clifford Law Offices of Chicago and Luvera Law Firm of Seattle, on behalf of their two dozen clients who were victims of the December Amtrak derailment near Seattle, Washington, along with their retained transportation expert Charley Pereira inspected the Amtrak 501 train wreckage with the intention of collecting data that will support their legal efforts to best represent 30 passengers and their families get answers as to the cause of the tragic derailment of the…

Uber’s program of self-driving cars in several cities across the U.S. has resulted in the tragic death Sunday, March 18, 2018, of a pedestrian on a street in Tempe, Arizona, the first death in the U.S. involving self-driving vehicles. Uber released a statement that it was pausing its self-driving car operations in Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto. This incident follows the temporary suspension of all self-driving vehicles in Arizona last year following a crash…

Robert A. Clifford and Clifford Law Offices are hosting DePaul University President Dr. A. Gabriel Esteban at a reception in his honor on March 28, 2018, from 6-8 p.m. at the Chicago Bar Association. A. Gabriel Esteban, PhD, is the 12th president of DePaul University, the nation’s largest Catholic university. He assumed the presidency on July 1, 2017, as the first lay leader in DePaul’s history. He most recently served as President of Seton Hall…