Landau Injury Law

In order to gauge the likely value of a case, the ABRAMS LANDAU team looks at a number of things, whether the client is involved in a car wreck, bicycle crash, slip and fall, dog attack or are injured due to a defective product, dangerous premises or other negligent conduct.  One of the best indicators is looking at jury verdict, mediation, arbitration and settlement amounts from similar cases in the same or similar jurisdictions.  This often requires Herndon Reston area injury lawyer Doug Landau use computer research.  Lauren Holtzman, shown here, utilizes the expensive Lexis-Nexus programs the firm pays for as well as other state, local and national sources.  We also look at our own, internal data in order to narrow the range of expected jury verdicts.  We also look at collectibility and assets in order to determine whether, once we win, we can economically collect compensation for our deserving clients.  

The trial team at ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. get calls from all over the country from victims of negligence, assaults and permanent injuries.  We are often asked (or told) “there’s a formula to these cases, isn’t there ?”When a brain-injured client’s parent tells me, “My neighbor’s friend’s dentist said that you just multiply the medical bills times three and that’s what you get for settlement” it is hard to explain that this has no basis in reality.  If this was true, then the woman I represented who slipped, fell and then lost her ability to have children would not have been able to seek more than just her Emergency Room bills.  If there was a formula of “three times specials,” then my younger clients, who miss time from school, would not get fair compensation.   A homemaker or person who could not get medical care (i.e., no CT Scans, x-rays, heavy pain medications) because they are pregnant, would be treated unfairly.  And those people who seek out unethical lawyers and over treat or go to unscrupulous doctors, would be unjustly enriched.  So, there is no “magic formula.”  It would not work in the majority of our cases, and we do not apply it in setting our demands, amounts sought in court or accepted in settlement.  At our Herndon injury law shop, we try to help people with all kinds of injuries, losses and cases.  Every case is unique and special.   See tomorrow’s post for more information on how Doug Landau and the ABRAMS LANDAU team evaluates injury, disease and disability cases.

Here are some reasons Herndon Reston area injury lawyer Doug Landau or ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. may advise a client that it is in their interests to enter a compromise settlement rather than risk a jury trial: 1. Time - you get compensation faster,2. Cost - you save on the expenses of trial,3. Emotional cost - you eliminate the uncertainty of trial,4. Patient-Physician relationship not subject to cross-examination, in public, causing your doctor to have doubts or unpleasantness,5. Privacy - “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” but what comes out in discovery or Court, does not always “stay put,”6. A jury may award you less,7. A jury may award you nothing,8. A judge may take away the jury’s verdict,9. The Defense may appeal the verdict, causing more time loss, expense and stress,10.  If the defendant or insurance company goes into bankruptcy, the proceedings are stayed and there is often more delay.

In 2007, Doug Landau and the trial team at ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. declined several dog attack cases. Examples of such cases include:

Example A: A child was bitten on the cheek by a dog in the Roanoke Valley. The homeowners had specifically signed an insurance policy that forbade (more…)

ABRAMS LANDAU clients with severe disability or brain injury are often appointed a Guardian ad Litem In a court of law, Guardian Ad Litem literally means, “guardian for the suit.” Actually, Doug Landau was a Classics Minor in college and studied Latin for a number of years. He likens the phrase to mean “a Guardian who takes you to the shore.” The Herndon Reston brain injury lawyer notes that a Guardian Ad Litem has been appointed for mentally disabled clients, children in “infant settlement” cases and clients with brain injuries or who are in comas and cannot assist in their own cases or manage their own finances. For a client on life support at INOVA Fairfax Hospital, a Guardian was appointed to look out for her interests and to bring the lawsuit in his name.

A guardian ad litem in Virginia is an attorney (more…)

Not every accident is actionable. In other words, even where there are terrible injuries, not every accident should give rise to a lawsuit. Not every accident is someone else’s fault. If we investigate a brain injury claim and find that there is no provable liability. In other words, if, after reviewing the evidence, speaking with the experts and discussions with the client and family, it is determined that (more…)

Robert Harris Sr., a retired Richmond Circuit judge who now mediates for The McCammon Group and who is approaching the $1 billion mark in the total value of settlements he has handled, is shown here with Herndon-Reston area injury lawyer Doug Landau at the VTLA Annual Convention at The Homestead. Like ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd., The McCammon Group is a sponsor of the 49th Annual Convention. The Hon. Robert Harris, Sr. (Richmond Circuit Court, retired) has been a mediator in some of the most serious injury cases in Virginia, including one of Mr. Landau’s head trauma and brain injury cases. That Fairfax County car crash case was mediated in Richmond and resulted in a settlement for Mr. Landau’s young client in excess of $2,000,000.00.
Judge Harris wrote in the Spring 1998 edition of the Journal of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association:
Over the past few years, mediation as a means of resolving disputes has grown exponentially in Virginia. Since my retirement as a circuit court judge in June 1995, I have personally mediated more than 400 cases across the Commonwealth, with 90 percent of those cases settled. I predict (more…)

ABRAMS LANDAU multistate injury lawyer and multisport athlete Doug Landau assembled a team to compete in the 16th Annual Van Metre 5 Mile Run For Children’s Hospital at Broadlands Marketplace in Loudoun County, Virginia. On Saturday, March 15th, 2008, (LEFT TO RIGHT) Dr. Allen Delaney, Doug Steele, TriathlonTrialLawyer Landau, Rob Colburn and Dr. Keith Saylor took to the starting line in order to benefit Childrens Hospital and compete against other teams. Finishing 4th in the all male group, the team averaged a little over 35 minutes for the breezy, “rolling” 5 mile course.

Herndon-Reston injury lawyer Doug Landau notes that several severely injury young clients have been successfully cared for at Childrens Hospital in the District of Columbia. In one case, a 4-year-old girl who was shot at point-blank range by a neighbor who had been given a pump action bb gun (more…)

Fredericksburg Virginia Radio station WFVA (1230 AM) will feature Herndon Injury Lawyer Doug Landau of ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. on its morning “Peoples Law School” program Monday, March 17th at 9:00 AM.  The affable Triathlon Trial Lawyer will answer questions from callers as well as from the host, fellow Virginia Trial Lawyer John Harris.   So, if you have any questions about all kinds of injury claims, workers compensation, dog attacks, occupational diseases, defective products, sports accidents, children’s cases, brain injury, Social Security Disability or other related topics, please call in !  The number is 540-371-5756.

In this case, which arose as the result of a four-year-old child being attacked and mauled by a dog at his day care operator’s home, the Abrams Landau trial team’s ability to function in a number of jurisdictions was put to the test !..
Recently voted again as on of Virginia and Washington, D.C.’s “Super Lawyers” Doug Landau visited with the entire family at their church in the Tidewater area of Virginia. Landau was able to combine this visit, in a setting that would be comforting to the family, (more…)