Landau Injury Law

Why, after working for law firms in New York City, Miami, London, and Washington, D.C. did Doug Landau pick the present building in Herndon, Virginia ?In a word, Location.There are 3 International Airports less than an hour away !!! Since the Abrams Landau office is only 10 minutes from Dulles International Airport (”IAD”); 25 miles from National Airport next to Washington, D.C. (”DCA”); and less than an hour from Baltimore-Washington International Airport (”BWI”), clients can (and do !) easily get to our office from all over the world.Mr. Landau also uses the private airports in Leesburg, Manassas, Virginia and also Gaithersurg, Maryland to fly to smaller cities that do not have regular commercial jet service. Though he has been called a “Super Lawyer,” Herndon attorney Doug Landau cannot just jump into a phone booth and then fly to his clients’ rescue ! Instead, in those cases where commercial service is not available or efficient, this Virginia Trial Lawyer hires a pilot and aircraft, so that he can spend the time needed to investigate a claim, try a case or visit with clients. Selected as one of “The Best Lawyers in America,” Landau has flown privately to such places as: Bluefield, Princeton, Warm Springs and Charleston, West Virginia; Raleigh-Durham, Research Triangle Park, Lumberton and Greensboro, North Carolina; Orange, New York State; Tri-Cities, Tennessee; and, Danville, Lebanon, Grundy, Martinsville, Roanoke, Hot Springs, Norfolk, Williamsburg, Covington, Virginia !The Landau Law Shop is less than a mile from the “Dulles Toll Road” which is a direct East-West roadway from D.C. with dedicated lanes to the Airport. There is also Amtrak Train service, with the Metroliner and high speed “ACELA” trains able to take clients from New York City to DC (city center to city center) in half the time it takes to drive I-95 ! Super Lawyer Doug Landau and his staff find that being near the Nation’s Capitol has many advantages, including efficient mass and rapid transit systems. Landau Law Shop clients and counsel have been known to go sightseeing and visiting the National Monuments, Museums and branches of government when they are in town..

Several local masters swimmers got a “cool down” of a different sort this summer when they were charged with “illegal swimming.” While many of us could be cited for “inefficient strokes,” chided for “cheating on the lane lines” or even penalized for “unnecessary roughness,” few Potomac Valley USMS members think about “jail time” in the same sentence as “lap time.” However, five masters swimmers (“the Speedo 5”) got a very real wake up call to the laws and dangers of open water swimming.

The “Speedo 6” were arrested this summer and brought to court on December 5th, 2007. The Defendants were charged under Virginia Code 18.2-119 (Misdemeanor Trespass), for swimming contrary to posted signs.
(more…)

While a workers compensation Award normally “locks in” the weekly comp rate, Herndon Super Lawyer Doug Landau has recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars for his clients on top of their total disability benefits.  How does he do this ? The law in most every state sets forth how comp rate is calculated.  The rate is usually 2/3rds of the average weekly gross wages, or 80% of spendable earnings, etc., based upon what the injured employee made over the prior 13, 26 or 52 weeks.  Most states have a “cap” or maximum compensation rate.  Virginia Trial Lawyer Doug Landau has helped clients for over 20 years get their weekly total disability payments increased in both injury and fatality cases by applying for Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA).  We all know that prices tend to increase (more…)

A backlog of appeals at the Social Security Administration has left hundreds of thousands of disabled claimants bankrupt, evicted and in some cases dead, attorneys and agency officials say. Governmental infighting has slowed the hiring of new judges to hear SSDI appeals, which currently numbers 755,000. The wait for Hearings before an Administrative Law Judge (”ALJ”) has grown from 258 days in 2000 to more than 500 days currently. Without added judges, agency officials expect the backlog of SSDI to grow. It is for this reason that Herndon Super Lawyer Doug Landau encourages his disability clients to apply for Social Security benefits as soon as they have supporting medical evidence indicating they cannot do their old job, or any other work in the national economy.
The disability process is complicated. The standards for approval of these claims is intentionally strict. It was designed to be difficult in order to prevent malingering and drains on the treasury. It is also subjective in claims involving mental illness and pain that cannot be tested. That is why Virginia Trial Lawyer Doug Landau advises Landau Law Shop clients to prepare for a live Hearing in front of an ALJ. As shown in other SSDI postings, it may be the Abrams Landau clients’ best chance at success.

Erik Eckholm, The New York Times 12/10/2007. Read full article. 
 

Herndon trial lawyer Doug Landau is frequently contacted by individuals and law firms with fatal accident claims.  Because of his experience in actually trying fatality claims before the Workers Compensation Commission and his inclusion in the book “Best Lawyers in America,” Landau has been brought into many death cases, even at the “24th hour.” (more…)

Marjorie Landau Hirshberg, New York trial lawyer Paul Rheingold and Herndon, Virginia trial lawyer Doug Landau of ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd., with the ATLA HALL OF FAME plaque presented posthumously to Doug’s father, Norman J. Landau. Mr. Rheingold, who practices in New York City, was the co-author with Norman Landau of the seminal books, “The Environmental Law Handbook,” and “Toxic Torts.”

The close up of the ATLA HALL OF FAME plaque presented posthumously to Doug’s father, Norman J. Landau in recognition of his outstanding career as one of America’s finest trial lawyers, teachers, writers and mentors. While ATLA can boast over 70,000 members presently, there were only a dozen members of the Hall of Fame, and no inductees in the last several years, before the late Mr. Landau’s nomination. The firm’s name, ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd., is derived from Doug Landau’s Grandfather William L. Abrams, and his father, Norman J. Landau. Herndon, Virginia trial lawyer Doug Landau is the third generation of lawyers in his family, and he hopes to carry on the tradition of excellent service to his clients, the courts and the profession.

We have had several recent cases where our clients were injured very seriously, or killed, by negligence drivers who had little or no car insurance. 

In one example, our client was run down by a cab while riding his bicycle.  Because the cabbie only had $100,000 in insurance coverage and few assets, we looked to our client’s own personal insurance policy to see if we could collect under his “Underinsured Motorist” coverage.  In other words, if our client had paid for more than $100,000 in coverage, then he could collect the excess from his own insurance carrier. 

For example, if he had purchased $500,000 in Under/Uninsured Motorist coverage, he could have collected up to $400,000 in additional benefits !  But, because his policy limits were the same as the negligent driver, his recovery was limited, and the case was settled for less than the potential jury verdict range.

When the driver who causes an accident has little or no insurance, and has little in the way of personal assets that can be collected with a Court judgment, we look to our own client’s insurance policies to see if they have paid for additional protection for themselves and their loved ones.  This protection is known as “Uninsured Motorist Coverage” and “Underinsured Motorist Coverage.”  With this type of insurance, if you are injured by someone with no insurance (or in a “hit and run” accident) then YOUR OWN INSURANCE COMPANY steps into the shoes of the other driver, may defend the claim, and can pay the judgment, up to, and only up to the limits of coverage you have purchased.  If your insurance company pays a judgment or settles the case, they can then pursue the other driver in order to get their money back in what is known as a “subrogation claim.”  Collecting the judgment then is no longer your problem if you have this insurance in sufficient amounts.  Protection of yourself, your assets and your loved ones is the reason that these parts of your car insurance policy are so very important.
(more…)

1. The Fourth of July started off with a bang for some Northwest Corner residents — the bang of a starter’s gun at the annual Run-Around-the-Lake. Well, actually there wasn’t a gun. That would have been too noisy for what has to be one of the quietest races in the world.

What started some 20 years ago as an activity of the Salisbury Winter Sports Association has evolved into a contest that is quintessentially New England: No one talks about it, there is no publicity and the organizers secretly hope that no one will show up.

A few calls to the Lakeville Town Grove on the day before the race elicited only the vaguest bits of information about the event. “If runners show up, we have the race. If they don’t show up, there’s no race,” a woman said, and then hung up the phone.” Twenty dedicated runners (including several triathletes and, curiously, three mothers-of-four-children) did show up, and the race was run. Times were relatively slow, in part because of the high heat and humidity on Tuesday morning.

“I’m carrying about two extra pounds of water weight,” Tom Donley said as he crossed the line. Sweat from his shirt and shorts was draining down his legs and arms.

The race starts at Lakeville’s Lake Wononscopomuc, goes up to The Hotchkiss School, heads down Indian Mountain Road and swings back up around Holley Street by the Wagner-McNeil Insurance Agency and back to the lake.

Courtesty of the Lakeville Journal, 07-05-2006 — By CYNTHIA HOCHSWENDER
(more…)

You would think that a lawyer listed as “One of the Best Lawyers in America” would have more important things to worry about than the envelopes his clients’; checks come in from the insurance companies.You could not be more wrong.  Virginia Trial Lawyer Doug Landau reminds clients under the protection of a Workers Comp Award that their checks should be on time.  If they are under an OPEN AWARD, and the Insurance Company’s check is too late, the Workers Compensation Commission can ODER a 20% penalty, payable directly to the injured worker (or her family in the case of fatal accident claims). (more…)

DOUG LANDAU, CHAIRMAN OF THE ASSOCIATION OF TRIAL LAWYERS OF AMERICA (now American Association for Justice “AAJ”) Social Security Disability Law Section, shown at the National Convention.

Former Michigan Trial Lawyers Association President Sheldon Miller, the late David Shrager (and former ATLA President) from Pennsylvania, and Herndon Virginia Trial Lawyer Doug Landau, of ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd., at the HALL OF FAME Induction. This very rare and extraordinarily prestigious ceremony was held in Toronto, Canada, and attended by thousands of great trial lawyers from all over the world.