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October 10, 2013 Robert A. Clifford, senior partner at Clifford Law Offices, has been invited to speak at the Spring Meeting of the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL). “The Trial of Socrates Redux: BYO Hemlock” is the title of the March 8 program in LaQuinta, California, that offers continuing legal education credit. Clifford will be joined by Dan Webb of Winston & Strawn, Patrick M. Collins of Perkins Cole, Patrick J. Fitzgerald of Skadden…

Many aspects of the litigation against Advocate are underway. Although many of Advocate’s patients have received letters, some patients have been allegedly victimized without having been aware of the data breach. Some patients state that they have not received letters, but their data was allegedly stolen. To address that issue, we have filed a motion in which we seek to have Advocate publish in the newspapers information concerning the data breach. The intention is to…

Insurance Institute Tracks Truck Accidents Noting that one in 10 highway deaths occur in a crash involving a large truck, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety compiles extensive information on truck accidents. Check here for the latest statistics, status reports and other resources. Coalition Dedicated to Improving Car-Truck Safety The Truck Safety Coalition is dedicated to reducing the number of deaths and injuries caused by truck-related crashes, providing support to truck crash survivors and their families, and educating the…

By the numbers 3,757 Killed – In 2011, 3,757 people died in collisions with trucks, an 11.2 percent increase over 2009. There were 88,000 injuries reported during the same period. Source: Commercial Motor Vehicle Facts, March 2013, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (download) Only $750,000 – Motor carriers are only required to maintain $750,000 in insurance per crash. Yet, damages from a fatal crash can exceed $4 million, leaving injured motorists and taxpayers to pay the difference. Source: Study…

After reaching an historic low in 2009, deaths and injuries from truck accidents are on the rise. Why the turn for the worse? According to a startling report from the American Association for Justice, lax practices are forcing a growing number of unsafe trucks on the road that are often driven by overworked, underpaid and poorly trained drivers. Meanwhile, outdated insurance laws fail to provide adequate coverage for those involved in a car-truck accident. Since…

Clifford’s Notes, Chicago Lawyer October 3, 2013 By Robert A. Clifford A man called my office over the summer with a potential case. He is a professional who lives on the Near North Side of Chicago and rides his bike downtown to and from work nearly every day. He considers himself a highly experienced bicyclist, having ridden thousands of miles in his life — including across the country. One day after work as he is…

As the summer winds down, the findings of a recent study on amusement park rides are interesting. A study published in Clinical Pediatrics concluded that of the nearly 93,000 children under 18 years of age who are injured on amusement park ridges and treated in U.S. emergency rooms between 1990-2010, 34 percent occurred at fixed sites. Dr. Gary Smith, senior author of the paper and director of the Center of Injury Research and Policy at…

In the wake of the massive data breach of four million patients at Advocate Medical comes word of other patient files being compromised at Chicago-area medical facilities. A front-page story of the Chicago Tribune (“Patient files left exposed,” Sept. 10, 2013) explain how records were found scattered at the now closed Edgewater hospital, which has been the site of many break-ins. Chicago Tribune reporters Ameet Sachdev and Nancy Loo reported that despite Edgewater Medical Center’s…

Clifford Law Offices has received hundreds of calls from patients who said they received letters from Advocate Medical regarding the compromise of their privacy and medical information in July. Advocate Medical reported that four computers were allegedly stolen from their Park Ridge offices. The computers contained important information regarding four million patients’ dates of birth, Social Security numbers and medical diagnoses. Some people who called have experienced unauthorized credit cards being opened in their names,…