Landau Injury Law

WInchester area lawyers at the Virginia Trial Lawyers Annual Convention in Williamsburg

“We know Doug Landau travels all over Virginia and the East Coast, but how does he manage local issues that might affect a case ?”  This is not an unreasonable question.  Herndon Reston and Dulles Airport area in jury lawyer Doug Landau has built up a network of lawyers all over the country who have helped him over the years.   Landau regularly participates in answering and asking questions on national and statewide listServs, travels to teach lawyers all over the country and fosters networking among trial lawyers for injured people and their families.  These lawyers routinely help ABRAMS LANDAU with questions about local doctors, car crashes, premises liability cases, Social Security Disability and workers compensation claims.  Shown here with top Winchester area lawyers Nate Adams and Nick Parthemos at the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association meeting in Williamsburg, Landau has fostered good working relationships with them and other Clarke County attorneys.  These good relations enable workplace injury and car crash lawyer Landau to better assist his disabled clients, wherever their case may arise or they may live or work.

Mold and sick building claims require substantial time and expense.  Firms with which we have worked invest heavily in building mold claims.  We have seen first-hand that they are very complicated and difficult to prosecute successfully. They almost always require multiple scientific and medical experts to establish what kind of mold you’re dealing with, causation and the extent of any injury (with inevitable wide disparity in the opinions of knowledgeable experts). There are very few generally accepted, objective criteria by which even honest experts can evaluate claims and almost every day sees another scientific paper published either supporting or denying the possibility of serious permanent injury from exposure to mold.

Basically, a victim with pretty severe symptoms (typically, someone with a pre-existing, compromised immune system or hypersensitivity to mold) who has been exposed to a large quantity of “bad mold” (like stachybotros) over a sufficiently long period of time that they have suffered some type(s) of permanent injury (i.e., it won’t get better simply by eradicating the mold or removing the victim from the moldy environment) may have a chance of getting fair restitution and payment for what has been taken from them and their families.  If you or your family or friends have questions about mold or sick building illness, please e-mail or call us at ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. (703-796-9555).

David Carson, moderator Deborah Waters & Doug Landau at the Annual VTLA Tort Law Seminar after the presentation on creative personal injury settlement packages and professional demand letters in Roanoke

Teaming up with another outstanding defense attorney enabled Herndon and South Riding area injury lawyer Doug Landau to show lawyers from South West Virginia how to maximize recovery for their disabled clients.  Roanoke defense lawyer David Carson of Johnson, Ayers & Matthews the view from the insurance company perspective in a “Point Counterpoint” presentation.  The Roanoke audience at this year’s Annual Tort Law Seminar heard from outstanding VTLA speakers as well as judges. Landau and Carson discussed personal injury settlement demand packages.

The two experienced Virginia trial lawyers gave their views and fielded questions from the audience, made up largely of attorneys who had been practicing for many  years.  Carson discussed some of the mistakes made by by lawyers who hold themselves out as being “personal injury lawyers,” but who do not actually try cases, invest properly in their disabled clients’ cases or even go to court.  Doug Landau showed effective ways of proving losses as the result of car crashes, dog attacks, bike accidents and slip and fall incidents.  If you would like to see Mr. Landau “in action,” please e-mail or call us at ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. (703-796-9555), as his calendar is an “open book” for trials, speeches, races and meetings.

Car & truck crash injury lawyer Doug Landau hopes that soon police will be able to recover "black box" data that can prove which vehicle was at fault in a wreck

It appears that in the next few years, cars will be equipped with black boxes, much like in airplanes, that can record data during a crash. The debate now, between Congress and safety groups, is how much and what type of data these boxes should record.  Lawmakers and automakers are struggling to agree on how durable the boxes should be as well, with car makers balking at the idea of an expensive piece of equipment being required in all vehicles.  One proposal suggests that the boxes be able to withstand a rollover crash as well as fire and water immersion, and record 60 second before a crash and 15 seconds after.  For more on this interesting debate, go to The Washington Post

If you or someone you know has been injured due to the fault of a driver whose vehicle may have been equipped with a “Black Box,” please e-mail or call us at ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. (703-796-9555), as these devices are sometimes removed by guilty defendants or destroyed when wrecks are salvaged for scrap.

Virginia Trial Lawyers Daniel Crandall & Douglas Landau taught at the Roanoke Higher Education Center today

As a member of the faculty of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association Annual Tort Law Seminar Herndon injury lawyer Doug Landau will travel the length and breadth of the Commonwealth this month.  Today’s presentation took the traveling trial lawyer to the Roanoke Higher Education Center in the South West part of the state.  Since he had just returned from his son’s Virginia Tech graduation in Blacksburg over the weekend, Landau flew into the former Vinton Salem area airport as he had done so many times before to try workers compensation and meet with personal injury and Social Security Disability clients.  Because the lecturers got ahead of schedule (a rarity when lawyers are giving speeches !), the interstate injury lawyer started the presentation on demonstrative exhibits, trial strategy, settlement and mediation without his co-presenter from the defense bar.  Once Defense Counsel arrived, the duo it full stride and kept the audience intrigued, followed by a “Question and Answer” period.

Landau was followed by his friend and well-known Roanoke Valley trial lawyer Daniel L. Crandall, who gave a thorough Power Point presentation on “General District Court Practice.”  Landau and Crandall shared other ideas after the Continuing Legal Education programs was finished and before the Herndon Reston area injury lawyer had to fly back to Dulles Airport. If you would like to see Mr. Landau “in action,” please e-mail or call us at ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. (703-796-9555), as his calendar is an “open book” for trials, speeches, races and meetings.

Richmond Virginia defense lawyer and Mediator Michael Harmon & Herndon Reston area plaintiff's personal injury lawyer Doug Landau after their CLE presentation today

Everyone who knows Herndon injury lawyer Doug Landau knows he likes to talk !  After success at the American Association for Justice meeting of the National Trial Lawyers in February and the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association Annual Convention in March, Landau is “taking it out on the road,” by teaching and giving presentations in Richmond, Roanoke, Norfolk and Fairfax during the month of May.  The lawyers who pay hundreds of dollars to attend these Continuing Legal Education programs, get required legal education and ethics credits and learn the latest development in the laws and personal injury trial practice.  The written materials that went with Landau’s speech were made available electronically, just as was the case at the National Trial Lawyers meeting this winter.

The ABRAMS LANDAU injury lawyer’s presentations will enable participants to hear from plaintiff and defense attorneys on

1. Creative, professional demand packages
2. Settlement conferences/mediation/arbitration
3. High/low agreements
4. Tips for low cost use of technology in demand and settlement
5. When high tech is worth the cost

While Douglas Landau, of Abrams Landau Ltd., Herndon, will be speaking at all four locations, as he has actually tried cases in all corners of the Commonwealth of Virginia, he is paired with a different experienced defense lawyer at each venue.  The top defense attorneys Landau has been teamed with include:

• Michael Harman of Harman, Claytor, Corrigan & Wellman, Richmond (Richmond)
• David Carson of Johnson, Ayers & Matthews, Roanoke (Roanoke),
• Robert Rigney of Protogyrou & Rigney, Norfolk (Norfolk),
• Stephen Crum of Robey Teumer & Drash, (Nationwide Staff Counsel, Fairfax/Northern Virginia).

All clients know that they can call the Landau Law Shop to find out when and where Doug Landau will next be trying cases, speaking, taking depositions, teaching or racing.  This “open book” policy has enabled many ABRAMS LANDAU clients and their friends and families to meet with Doug Landau “close to home” and members of the Law Shop Trial Team without having to travel to the Herndon Reston area, or battle the infamous “Beltway.”

When insurance companies wrongfully deny claims because of additional injury after a car crash or later diagnosed harm, the remedy is to take them to court

A jury awarded $51,000 to a woman who claimed a motor vehicle accident ruptured her breast implants. In 2007, the plaintiff was rear-ended by an uninsured motorist while stopped at a traffic light. The plaintiff initially claimed soft-tissue back injuries.  As sometimes happens in personal injury litigation, she was later diagnosed another medical condition.  In this case, the injured plaintiff was diagnosed as having ruptured breast implants, which will require surgical replacement. Following the accident, the plaintiff filed a claim with her insurance carrier, seeking uninsured motorist coverage.
The plaintiff’s insurance company denied the claim.  The injured woman’s insurance company asserted that the accident was not the proximate cause of the implant rupture.  According to car crash chest and torso injury lawyer Doug Landau, “the insurance company probably did not want to pay for these additional special damages.”  Furthermore, “at the Landau Law Shop, we have seen insurers fight claims for cosmetic surgery, dermabrasion and scar remediation despite their own insured’s fault and even aggravated liability.”  Not giving up or taking the insurance company’s word for it, the resolute plaintiff then filed a lawsuit against the insurance company.  The jury ultimately determined that the rear-ender caused her injuries.   The case is Miller v. AAA Texas County Mutual Insurance Co.  If you or someone you know has been harmed by a car crash, or learns of a new diagnosis after an accident, please e-mail us at ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd., or call us at (703)-796-9555, as pursing claims for damages and injuries after the insurance company has denied the claim and concluded its investigation can be difficult and expensive.

Sometimes the Federal Government interferes with an injured victim's ability to get fair compensation because of the Center for Medicare Services' delays responding to requests for lien ("IOU") information

The lawyers for injured victims have frequently reported that the Medicare Secondary Payer Act is riddled with inefficiency.  HR 4796, the Medicare Secondary Payer Enhancement Act would correct this problem by requiring the Center for Medicare Services (CMS) to respond to requests for their lien amount within 60 days.  A “lien” is like an “IOU,” it’s the legal term for how much some company or governmental agency claims you owe them because of a contract (like workers comp) or law (like Medicare).

What we have seen at ABRAMS LANDAU is the Federal Government notifying an injured person that they must pay back the government for  medical care paid for under the medicare Program from the proceeds of their car crash, dog bite or defective product case.  But then when we write to the government to find out how much they claim to be owed and for what services, it takes forever and a day.  Sometimes the Federal Government inadvertently wants to be paid back for medical care that is not related to the car crash or slip and fall accident.  Other times, there are court deadlines or trial looming, and the trial judge will not wait for the government’s numbers, which can ruin the chances for a fair compromise settlement.

This new bill would be self-funded by a $30 application fee.  In other words, this bill costs the taxpayers nothing, and it has the broad support of coalitions including the National Retail Federation and Allstate Insurance.  You can help move this important legislation towards passage by asking your Member of Congress to cosponsor HR 4796.  If you have questions about this legislation, please contact Sarah.Rooney@justice.org directly or call her at 202.965.3500

In previous posts Florida and Virginia interstate highway accident lawyer Doug Landau had written about the importance of safety in and approaching roadway construction sites during this “National Work Zone Awareness Week.”  At ABRAMS LANDAU, we have represented drivers who have been injured at road improvement and interstate construction sites in personal injury cases and we have also represented workers injured in on the job accidents before the Workers Compensation Commissions.  Recently, made aware of the Florida wrongful death lawsuit Estate of Brashear v. Zep Construction, Landau notes that the jury apportioned nearly all of the liability between the Construction company and the Traffic Control Product company, despite the fact that the Defendant truck driver struck the plaintiff at a high rate of speed.

In this tragic case, the decedent was stopped in construction traffic on Interstate 75 when he was struck from behind by a 70-mph tractor-trailer. The plaintiff bled to death in his 11-year-old son’s lap.  Plaintiffs’ counsel blamed general contractor Zep Construction and subcontractor Traffic Control Products, alleging that the usual warning lights and other hazard equipment were not present. Counsel argued that the lack of adequate warnings was a cost-saving measure. The jury found that the defendants knowingly operated dangerously and were motivated by financial gain. It found Zep Construction 65 percent liable, Traffic Control Products 30 percent liable and the truck driver, who was not a party, 5 percent liable.  The family of the man killed in this tragic rear-ender contraction site crash, which was witnessed by his son who was a passenger, recovered $4.2 million.  If you or someone you know has been injured in a construction zone accident,  on the job accident or become disabled as the result of an occupational disease or illness, Please e-mail or call ABRAMS LANDAU (703-796-9555) today.

Trying cases for injured workers in small towns against the major employer requires experience, staffing and resources

Having tried cases for injured mine workers and travelled to the mining areas of West Virginia, occupational injury lawyer Doug Landau has been following the news reports of the recent mine explosion that took over two dozen miner’s lives. A Washington Post article about the recent mining explosion in West Virginia that killed 25 people stated that the mining industry wields major political clout in Washington thanks to hefty campaign contributions to GOP lawmakers and expensive lobbying efforts aimed at blunting the impact of environment- and safety-related legislation. The industry is currently finding itself under massive scrutiny after the WV disaster.

As the major employer in some rural small towns, it is very difficult for the injured workers to find a competent, experienced workers comp lawyer, let alone bring a claim against the major (and best paying) employer in the region.  Doug Landau has tried cases in Lebanon and Covington, Virginia as well as Bluefield, Princeton and Charleston, West Virginia for disabled and injured workers and their families.  ABRAMS LANDAU has successfully won workers compensation claims, Social Security Disability cases and negligence lawsuits for Virginia and West Virginia clients.  If you or someone you know has been injured or become disabled as the result of a mine collapse, explosion or other accident, please e-mail or call ABRAMS LANDAU (703-796-9555) today.