Robert Clifford Named Lead Counsel in Boeing Crash Litigation

Chicago trial attorney Robert Clifford today was named lead counsel in federal litigation involving the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302’s Boeing 737 Max8 jet on March 10, 2019, in Ethiopia.

Families of Victims of Boeing Crash Vigil September 10, 2019 (Photo: Russell Mokhiber)

The consolidated litigation includes 97 currently-filed individual lawsuits filed thus far in U.S. District Court in Chicago against Chicago-based Boeing and other defendants including airline parts manufacturers and aircraft designers.

U.S. District Court Judge Jorge L. Alonso also ordered the formation of a leadership committee at a hearing Tuesday morning. 

Tracy A. Brammeier, attorney at Clifford Law Offices, was named liaison counsel for plaintiffs’ counsel. 

Judge Alonso set November 21 as the next status court date.

Discovery in the matter will be consolidated among all of the plaintiffs, although damages will be individualized for each of the 157 people who lost their lives in that crash.

Clifford’s committee and Boeing are now working on developing a protective order regarding the production of documents that deal with the design and development of the 737 Max8, particularly what Boeing knew following the October 29 Lion Air crash of the Max8 in the Java Sea and the Max8 crash in Ethiopia just a few months later on March 10.

Magistrate Judge M. David Weisman also is hearing matters on the litigation in the Northern District of Illinois federal court. 

His next hearing date regarding discovery is set for October 28

Clifford had represented victims in nearly every major commercial airline crash in the United States in the last 40 years. 

He served as lead counsel in the property damage claims in the 9/11 litigation that resulted in a $1.2 billion settlement. 

Clifford reported today that there were about as many U.S. victims in the crash, some holding dual citizenship, as there were Ethiopian passengers onboard. 

Victims from a total of 35 countries were killed in the crash in an Ethiopian field.

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