First Verdict in "The Trial of the Titanic"

Robert Clifford and a team of top trial attorneys from around the country were awarded $1.5 million in the American Bar Association's mock trial on the sinking of the Titanic in Toronto Monday Aug. 3. Clifford estimated that to be about $18 million in today's dollars.

Clifford along with Johnnie Cochran and other nationally prominent trial lawyers tried the product liability case stemming from the 1912 accident which resulted in the loss of 1,500 lives.

Using professional actors, the trial involved a fictional plaintiff filing a faulty construction claim. Clifford represented Rhonda Abbott whose husband and sons were locked below deck until after the life boats were loaded. Clifford said she also planned to file a sex discrimination claim challenging the "women and children first" policy.

"The trial was a huge success," Clifford said of the verdict where he used computer graphics and the latest in technical engineering during the all-day "Presidential Showcase Trial of the Century" program. "The technology certainly enhanced a lawyer's ability to demonstrate what happened."

The trial was conducted as if today's laws and modern courtroom technology had been transported back to the time of the sinking of the Titanic.

In true life, all of the lawsuits involving the Titanic were settled without coming to trial. The largest settlement in America was $5,000 and the largest settlement in England was $50,000.

Clifford now moves on to the "real thing" against Metra when the case of internationally-acclaimed violinist Rachel Barton goes to trial January 11 in Cook Country Circuit Court in Chicago.

He is principal partner of Clifford Law Offices , a Chicago law firm concentrating in personal injury, aviation, transportation, medical negligence and product liability law.