Landau Injury Law

OK, I’ll admit it.  I’m partial to “home made” Halloween costumes.  “Store bought” just never did it for me.  At The Madeira School annual Halloween parade, the various departments try to come up with unique, humorous and relevant.  In years past, the Athletic Department dressed in matching swimsuits, caps and flippers as a “synchronized swim team,” complete with their own kiddy pool.  The Math Department came as the various flavors of “Pi” – apple, cherry, blueberry, shepherds and “American.”

My favorite this year was the Science Department.  In years past, they have done “The Neutron Dance,”  and inspired students to come as hydrogen atoms and ions.  This year the science instructors came in black leather, electric guitars, safety pin earrings and periodic table abbreviations on their backs.  What were they ?  HINT: LEAD Zeppelin, QuickSILVER, Queen’s Freddy MERCURY’s solid GOLD hits…

Give Up ?  They were a “HEAVY METAL BAND !”

While a number of recent posts have covered somber topics, at Abrams Landau, Ltd., we do also celebrate accomplishments, accolades and other milestones. This Fall, both Beatrice Vargas (on left) and Lauren Holtzman (center) celebrated birthdays with Melissa (bookkeeping, on right) and the rest of the Herndon Reston area injury law firm team. Here the two women are shown enjoying their birthday cake in the always bustling LandauLawShop kitchen. The counter island was built by one of our Workers Comp clients after we successfully won and then settled his claim. Attorney Holtzman was instrumental in the recent policy-limits settlement of a car crash case that occurred less than a mile from our office. Mrs. Vargas was critical to the winning court decision and ultimate settlement of a workers compensation fatality claim for a family that lives in Mexico and North Carolina. Congratulations to both women on their success and hard work.

Alcohol-related fatalities increased among motorcycle riders in half the states in 2007.  The increase was 7.5% over the previous year.  Motorcycle riders were featured in the government’s $13 million advertising campaign over the Labor Day Weekend.  Many of you may have noticed that law enforcement authorities stepped up their activities against drunk driving during the end of the summer.  At Abrams Landau, Ltd. we have seen alcohol impaired motorcycle drivers cause devastating injuries and lifelong disability.

Is there such a thing as a “Designated Driver” for inebriated motorcyclists ?

Abrams Landau’s founding partner, Doug Landau received this missive in October:

Dear Douglas K. W. Landau, Esq:

I would like to congratulate you on having been selected by your peers for inclusion in the 2009 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® in the specialty of Workers’ Compensation Law. For over a quarter of a century, Best Lawyers has been regarded – by both the profession and the public – as the definitive guide to legal excellence in the United States.

Selection to Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive and rigorous peer-review survey comprising more than 2.5 million confidential evaluations by the top attorneys in the country. Because no fee or purchase is required, being listed in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Our annual, advertisement-free publication has been described in The American Lawyer as “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.”

The Best Lawyers in America also reaches the largest and most targeted audience of any peer review publication in the legal profession. Best Lawyers is excerpted monthly in Corporate Counsel Magazine, reaching more than 44,000 general counsel. Excerpts also appear in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, and more than 50 other regional and city magazines, reaching more than 15 million influential readers. The Best Lawyers database is also now searchable on more than 260,000 Bloomberg Terminals™ worldwide.

Your legal specialty and contact information are visible to all subscribers of BestLawyers.com. More than 13,000 listed attorneys, representing more than 1,400 law firms, have linked their firm web pages or bios to BestLawyers.com, making them visible to all site visitors, not just to subscribers. In the past year, the site has received more than 6.4 million hits and responded to more than 4.6 million requests for lawyer searches.

Again, congratulations on being chosen by your fellow attorneys to be included in The Best Lawyers in America

Several calls for help have come from athletes injured in organized school or league play. In one case, a goalie for a high level team was kicked in the face and had his jaw broken by an opposing player. While injuries during contact sports are not unusual, what made this case different is the fact that the offensive forward who struck the keeper did so after the goalie had possession of the ball AND he was not a member of the opposing team or even the league. In other words, as Reston Herndon sports injury lawyer Doug Landau told the Court, “The Winger was a “Ringer.”

At the beginning of the match, the referees had simply counted the player cards and the bodies on the field. They failed to match the league issued ID cards to the faces on the pitch. So, the opposing team was able to bring a “hit man” on to the field in order to injure and “take out” players from the Abrams Landau client’s side with impunity. Knowing this, the Defendant soccer player ran right at the goalie in possession inside the box and kicked him in the head. This “Ringer” could not be fined, suspended or kicked out of the league, because he was not a member to begin with !

If you or someone you know has been injured due to the illegal or reckless conduct of someone at a sports event or during competition, call a member of the Abrams Landau team. There are strict time deadlines, and meritorious cases can be lost because too much time has passed. For example, while most personal injury cases in Virginia have a 2 year time period in which to be filed in court, intentionally caused injuries may only have half that amount of time. So, filing an intentionally caused sports injury case 18 months after the incident may be too late.

As a member of the Florida Bar, I keep up with legal developments in the “Sunshine State.”  At Abrams Landau, Ltd., we have represented many clients who are residents of, or were injured in, Florida.  Tort Reform in 2003 limited the amounts that could be charged by the injured workers’ legal counsel.  However, this “Tort Deform” did not limit how much money the insurance companies and employers could pay their lawyers.  This 5-year-old law severely limits the abilities of plaintiff’s lawyers to recoup fees even for cases they win.  There are no limits to what defense lawyers can charge, and their fees are NOT contingent upon the outcome !

This law is currently being challenged by the case of Murray vs. Mariner Health.  The injured workers lawyer successfully won benefits previously denied his client, Emma Murray.  The injured worker was a nurse who was injured while lifting a patient.  Nurse Murray’s lawyer put in approximately 80 hours in order to win the case, yet his fees were limited to about $650.00.  The claimant’s lawyer took on the case, risked getting nothing if he lost, and, after winning, got paid about $8.00 an hour.  Do you think any defense lawyer would work on a contingent fee case for $8.00 an hour ?  The case is pending before the Florida Supreme Court.  Because the case involves a state administrative law system, it can likely not go up to the United States Supreme Court, of which I am also a member.  I hope for the Florida workers compensation claimants’ lawyers’ sake that the state Supreme Court changes this unjust law.

Herndon Reston area injury, disability and health care lawyer Doug Landau has been selected by his peers to be included as Best Lawyers in Health Care, Employee Benefits and Workers’ Compensation Law by Corporate Counsel magazine. Corporate Counsel magazine is the most widely read magazine of its kind – its readers spend an average of $4.7 million each year on outside litigation and counsel. Over 86,000 influential in-house counsel read Corporate Counsel magazine every month – more than 40% of which are Chief Legal Officers. While Doug Landau appreciates this honor, the Herndon Reston area injury lawyer notes that most of his clients are not Chief Legal Officers or Corporate Counsel, but regular working people who have sustained devastating injuries and permanent disability.

Spinal Cord Stimulation (”SCS”) has been shown to be an effective treatment modality for some people who have unremitting, chronic back pain as the result of a car crash, scaffold fall and other trauma to the spine. SCS is a covered benefit under Medicare and other governmental health care programs, and most Workers’ Compensation programs in the U.S. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provided national coverage for SCS after determining that the therapy met the agency’s stringent requirements for medical necessity. The US Military Health System also covers SCS for active and retired military personnel and their families.

Pain management physicians and relevant national medical societies agree that SCS is an appropriate treatment for chronic neuropathic pain patients meeting the following criteria:

• Other treatment modalities have failed or are unsuitable or contraindicated;
• The patient has undergone careful screening, evaluation, and diagnosis by a
multidisciplinary team; and
• The patient demonstrates adequate pain relief in a clinically appropriate screening
trial.

According to the Position Statement of the American Academy of Pain Medicine: SCS is a safe, effective, and widely accepted therapy covered by a wide range of public and private payers. It is critical that patients with chronic, intractable pain have access to SCS because, for appropriate candidates, no other treatment options exist, and their condition is often partially or completely disabling. SCS provides a means to relieve pain, restore function, and improve the quality of life for these patients.

Once again the INOVA Health System is providing free medical information to the public. At a time when treating doctors spend precious little time with their own patients, this is a welcome public service. Doug Landau was shocked and dismayed to find out that a famous local orthopedic surgeon and professional sports team doctor sees 8 patients per hour, which averages less than 7 minutes per person!  The Herndon Reston area injury lawyer has attended several of these excellent programs. Landau has seen people ask questions, get valuable information and “face time” with experienced INOVA doctors and learned from other attendees questions and comments. The topics covered by the free lectures and Open House include:

• Oct. 23, 2008, 7:00 PM, (Thurs.) “Treatments for Arthritis,” Dr. William Lennen, M.D., call 703-750-8800 for more information.
• Nov. 8, 2008, 10:00 AM- 2:00 PM (Sat.) “Breast Health Open House,” see new digital mammography equipment, receive breast health education, meet experts, receive a free tote bag, and ask your questions. Call 703-391-3839 for more information.
• Nov. 11, 2008, 7:00 PM (Tues.) “Learn about the benefits of minimally invasive surgery,” Dr. Barry Walter, M.D., call 703-750-8800 for more information.
• Oct. 23, 25, and Nov. 1, 12, 13, 15, 20 (various times and physicians) “Weight-Loss Surgery Information Sessions,” at INOVA Fair Oaks Hospital. Call 703-391-3783 for more information.

One of the reasons Herndon Reston area injury lawyer Doug Landau travels to meet with lawyers from all over the world is to compare methods of effectively proving injured victims and disabled clients cases.  While working for a large solicitors firm in England Landau learned that the medicine and technology are similar on “both sides of the pond.”  The laws, trials and means of presenting cases in court are different, but being exposed to new ideas and successful strategies has been beneficial.  Shown here are South African lawyer Henry Shields, Pennsylvania Lawyer and WILG Stalwart Todd O’Malley and Mrs. O’Malley and Mrs. Landau at this year’s national trial lawyers convention, which is attended by members from countries all over the world.  Injuries caused by faulty products, drugs and dangerous chemicals have have common facts regardless of where in the world they occur.  Trial lawyers learn from each other and help each other.  That is how the trial lawyers can take on the multi-national corporations, manufacturers and insurers on behalf of the injured and disabled in contingency cases.