Robert Clifford Preparing to File First Lawsuit in Alaska Airlines Crash

Nationally recognized aviation attorney, Robert Clifford of Chicago, has been retained by a Round Lake Beach, Illinois woman who lost her husband in the Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which plunged into the Pacific Ocean carrying 83 passengers and five crew members last week.

Clifford represents Julie Friedmann, wife of Allen M. Friedmann, 48, who was aboard that ill-fated flight. Allen Friedmann had just started a new job in the marketing department of the California Bankers Association when the plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean. He was returning from Puerto Vallarta to San Francisco, his place of employment.

Clifford, along with partner Kevin Durkin, intend to file a negligence lawsuit against Alaska Airlines before week's end. Other defendants, including the manufacturers of the elevator trim and stabilizer, two airplane parts that have been the center of the initial investigation, will be added as more specific information becomes available to the attorneys.

Clifford, partner of Clifford Law Offices , has represented victims of aviation crashes and their families in every major commercial airline crash in the last two decades. He acted as lead counsel in the crash involving American Airlines Flight 4184 in Roselawn, Indiana. That resulted in a $110 million settlement for some two dozen families.

Clifford was lead co-counsel in the recent $43.7 million settlement on behalf of three families who lost loved ones aboard USAir Flight 427 from Chicago to Pittsburgh. One of the settlements was for $25.2 million, the largest settlement to a person in a commercial airline disaster.

Clifford also holds the record for the largest verdict in commercial aviation disaster. That was back in 1994 when a jury returned a verdict for $28.2 million on behalf of a 70-year-old woman who was seriously injured in the Sioux City, Iowa crash.

Clifford was more recently in the news when he received a $29.6 million verdict for internationally-acclaimed violinist Rachel Barton who was severely injured in a Metra train accident.