Landau Injury Law

In the case of Sutherland v. Hartford Roman Catholic Dioceasan Corp., Doug Landau of ABRAMS Landau, Ltd. was asked to assist at the 24th hour in a case involving the molestation of a church altar boy.  The clergyman who was sought in connection with the case, had relocated to Virginia, and the Defendants did not want to reveal his whereabouts.  In a jurisdiction like Virginia, where dangerous dogs have to be registered, Herndon Injury Lawyer Doug Landau finds it inconceivable that a child molester would not have to register or give notice of his whereabouts.  And the fact that the Defendants sought to cover up this information is nothing short of shameful.  When the Court ordered that the Defendant’s whereabouts be shared with Plaintiff’s counsel, Landau was shocked to see that the address given was across the street from the public library where he has taken his own children and the Chantilly High School where they have attended many events.  The good news is that this case settled during trial.  The excellent Reardon Law Firm achieved a great result for this damaged client.  For details on other alter boy molestation cases handled by our friends and co-counsel in New London, Connecticut, please go to: Reardon Law Firm press release.

The Abrams Landau, Ltd. law firm was recently contacted by Connecticut counsel for emergency assistance in locating and serving a subpoena on a clergyman who had relocated to Virginia after molestation of young boys in Connecticut.  This was a rare civil trial involving a priest and a former altar boy, and as the trial began in Hartford, there were “signs that the case could provide explosive details about how the Catholic church has dealt with sex-abuse allegations.” according to the 2/29/08 Hartford Courant newspaper article..The Reardon Law Firm, of New London, filed a Motion for Issuance of a Commission to take the deposition of a named defendant in the case of Sutherland v. Hartford Roman Catholic Dioceasan Corp.  Imagine Herndon Injury Lawyer Doug Landau’s amazement when the address revealed after the Court’s Order was issued turned out to be across from the Public Library and the Chantilly High School !  Landau quickly mobilized several private investigators with whom the Abrams Landau trial team have worked in the past.  The case was followed by the press and the matter was settled at trial.  
.Doug Landau has worked with the Reardon Law Firm in the past.  In fact, Robert Reardon and the lawyers in his firm are currently working on behalf of several Abrams Landau clients’ cases including a dog attack and bite of a child and a head-on car crash on Interstate 95.  Herndon Injury Lawyer Doug Landau is shown in this picture with Robert Reardon at the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA), now known as the American Association for Justice, Annual Meeting. 

The Postal Employee’s action for damages arose out of a dog attack that occurred as our client was in the course and scope of his employment for the U.S. Postal Service. Mr. Landau’s client was placing mail in the mailboxes, when he saw a woman approaching with a dog on a leash. It appeared that the woman wanted access to the mailboxes, where the mailman was working. He moved toward the street, to avoid the woman and her dog. At this point, the woman approached his direction. When the woman and the dog were approximately (5) five feet away, the dog, unprovoked in any way by this uniformed Postal Employee, lunged at his face.

Mr. Landau’s client raised his arm to protect his face. The dog bit the man’s arm, through his winter jacket. At the time, this hard working man did not realize that he been bitten. The woman apologized and left the scene. Later that day, and while still working his route, this postal worker felt pain and saw blood dripping from his arm. He took off his jacket and was surprised to find (more…)

When a mail carrier was attacked while delivering the mail in a Kearney New Jersey neighborhood, he had no idea that he was not the first, or even the second person attacked and bitten by this large dog. He was the third !

This injured mail carrier, like the police officer attacked by the dog on the very same street, also contacted Herndon, Virginia injury lawyer Doug Landau of Abrams Landau, Ltd. to prosecute his personal injury claim against the Defendant dog owners and their Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Insurance Company. This Herndon law firm has experience helping people attacked and bitten by dogs throughout the East Coast. The trial team at Abrams Landau, Ltd. has successfully settled cases against the insurance company that issued the policy of insurance on the home where the dangerous dog is kept. In most cases, the insurance covering the owners of the dog (more…)

College athletes are often in extraordinary physical shape. Herndon Trial Lawyer Doug Landau is continually amazed at their recuperative powers. The athletes represented by Doug Landau and the Virginia trial team at Abrams Landau and his father’s firm, Landau, Miller & Moran of New York City, have shown extraordinary healing capacity after horrific injury. The Triathlon Trial Lawyer will forever remember the brave and hard-working university and post-collegiate athletes he has been privileged to represent.

A recent case from Florida appears to be yet another remarkable case of recovery in the court and outside of the court house. In 2003, the plaintiff, then an 18-year-old baseball player at the school, was struck by the Defendant just outside a bar and grill on University Avenue. Unlike the Virginia Civil justice system, (more…)

Sometimes being a “Super Lawyer” isn’t so super. Doug Landau has the unhappy task of advising potential clients that they cannot sue a co-worker, even for negligence, if the case comes about as the result of a work-related event. Likewise, the Herndon Trial Lawyer has also advised people that they have no worker comp claim because the injury at work did not “arise out of and in the course of their employment” as required under the Virginia Workers Compensation Act. How can this be so if they were hurt at their workplace, or by a co-worker or while “on the clock” ???

The Supreme Court of Virginia ruled this month that in a negligence action to recover damages for personal injury and death resulting from an assault on the victim by a fellow employee, the trial court erred in concluding that the Virginia Worker’s Compensation Act provided the exclusive remedy for the claims.  Because Virginia is not governed by the “positional risk test,” merely being at the job site or “on the clock” does not mean that comp benefits will be awarded. Herndon Trial Lawyer Doug Landau explains that the Commonwealth uses the “actual risk test,” such that the injury must be the result of some activity that “arises out of the employment” and not just “in the course of” the work being done.

In the case of Hilton v. Martin, (#070091, 01/11/2008 ) one member of an EMS unit took out the electric cardiac shocker paddles and “shocked” another team member as they were returning in their ambulance to the station. The woman electrified by the Defendant eventually died (more…)

We achieved a settlement after five years of litigation in a case involving the criminal, sexual assault of a passenger by the airport security supervisor.

The injuries included emotional distress, fear of airports and security personnel, and aggravation of preexisting emotional distress. The case was filed in the Loudoun County Circuit Court. There were no lost wages, as the plaintiff was already out of work, taking medications, receiving psychological treatment, unemployed, and on Social Security Disability.

Facts of the case:

On the date of this incident, the defendant was a uniformed employee of Argenbright Security, Inc. (ASI). His jacket was a different color than the security personnel under him, as he was a supervisor that night. The plaintiff had missed her evening flight, and the next one out was in the early morning the next day. The defendant led the plaintiff back through the security checkpoint (as depicted in the airport security disc) and told the
other security officers to allow her to pass with her large luggage. The ASI security officer indicated that this was all right because the man in the red jacket was the supervisor. The defendant led the plaintiff towards the ASI security office at Dulles Airport. He indicated that she would be fine to rest in the area adjacent to the ASI security office. There were other airport security personnel sitting across from this area.

The plaintiff set her luggage cart in this area (which pretrial discovery revealed was used to check those with pacemakers, pregnant travelers, etc.) and then lay down to rest. Thereafter, she was awakened by the defendant, who was rubbing his body against her and touching her in an inappropriate manner. The plaintiff told him to get off of her, and grabbed her purse, wallet, and carry bag. The security people located directly across from where she had been resting appeared to be watching her and her assailant in some sort of ritual. They did not come to her aid and did nothing to help her. She found refuge, and an airport detective easily identified the attacker, who was charged, pled guilty, and was convicted of sexual assault and battery in the Loudoun County General District Court. ASI no longer provides security services at Dulles International Airport. The area where the assault took place has been removed, and the defendant supervisor was fired after this attack.