Our Blog

Robert A. Clifford was recognized by Best Lawyers as the 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” for Mass Tort Litigation/ Class Actions – Plaintiffs in the Chicago area. Only a single lawyer in each practice area and designated metropolitan area is honored as the “Lawyer of the Year,” making this accolade particularly significant. These lawyers are selected based on particularly impressive voting averages received during the peer review assessments. According to Best Lawyers, “Lawyer of the Year”…

Robert A. Clifford, Chair of the Council of the American Bar Association (ABA) Fund for Justice and Education (FJE), addressed a crowd Sunday evening at the ABA’s Annual Meeting in Chicago. Clifford, founder and senior partner of Clifford Law Offices, thanked those who support this charitable arm of the ABA because the funds go to needy causes — from providing legal services following Hurricanes Harvey and Maria, to helping immigrant children dislocated from their parents…

Observers are saying it was nothing short of a miracle when all 103 aboard an Aeromexico flight survived the crash of Flight AM2431 Tuesday, July 31, 2018. Investigators have located the black boxes of the jet that was flying from Guadalupe Victoria International Airport in Durango to Mexico City when it crashed in stormy weather about 4 p.m. Mexico time. All aboard the Embraer 190 jetliner were able to escape, some with very serious injuries,…

USA Today reported on how “Hospitals know how to protect mothers. They just aren’t doing it” in a weekend story entitled “Deadly Deliveries.” In a cover story of July 27-29, 2018, reporter Alison Young and a team of contributors wrote of how they examined more than half-million pages of internal hospital quality records obtained through federally funded programs and the deliveries of 150 women at hospitals where “deliveries went terribly wrong.” Their findings resulted in…

Several major publications are reporting that court records indicate that the deadly duck boats were designed decades ago by a businessman who had no engineering experience. The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times and USA Today are among those reporting that the designer and entrepreneur, Robert F. McDowell, had completed only two years of college and “had no background, training or certification in mechanics when he came up with the design for ‘stretch’ duck…

The Ride the Ducks Branson company reportedly was warned about dangerous safety issues and design flaws nearly a year ago regarding its amphibious vessels, according to Fox News. It is being reported by Fox News that a mechanical inspector hired by owners of the company, Ripleys Entertainment based in Florida, hired a mechanical inspector to examine 24 duck boats that it was interested in buying at that time. Steven Paul, who served in the U.S….

Investigators updated the public and the media on its ongoing investigation into Thursday’s July 19, 2018) tragic duck boat trip on Table Rock Lake that left 17 people dead and 14 more injured. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Member Earl Weener revealed on Saturday evening that a “black box,” similar to that found on airplanes, had been located on the submerged duck boat and has been shipped to Washington, D.C., for inspection. A preliminary report…

As more details emerge from the investigation into the duck boat that sank near Branson, Missouri, Thursday (July 19, 2018), experts are more carefully examining the weather conditions that day and any safety procedures that might have been followed on the amphibious vessel before leaving on its tourist run. The National Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the Table Rock Lake area from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday and about a…

A duck boat carrying 31 people sank in a storm while they were on Table Rock Lake near Branson, Missouri, on the evening of Thursday, July 19th. The boat capsized then sunk to the bottom of the lake, killing 17 people on board, reportedly even small children. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating whether life jackets were on board and used. Investigators also are looking into whether warnings about the weather were ignored…