Landau Injury Law

While the Virginia Workers Compensation law is a “no fault” system, such that negligence or clumsiness does not matter, according to Herndon Reston area injury and disability lawyer Doug Landau of ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd., there are three instances where the injured worker can still lose.
Where a worker is injured or killed because they were drunk, stoned or willfully violated a known safety rule and that the safety rule was strictly enforced, the judge will rule in favor of the employer and their insurance company. To prevail on the defense of a willful violation of a safety rule, the employer must prove that:

(1) the safety rule was reasonable;
(2) the rule was known to the employee;
(3) the rule was for the benefit of the employee; and
(4) the employee intentionally undertook the forbidden act.

If the employer carries its burden of proof by showing that the employee knew of the rule and intentionally violated it, the court will find (more…)

With those words, I was told by the Supreme Court of Virginia that they would not award benefits for my client, who was dying of berylliosis. He had worked on rocket propellent experiments in Alexandria for much of his 38 year career with Atlantic Research, and of the 20 other men who did this kind of work, he was the only one still alive.

This disabled man came to ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. when he lost feeling in his extremities and became short of breath, and we filed the workers compensation claim less than 6 months after the diagnosis from the National Jewish Medical Center in Denver, Colorado was received. However, as it had been more than 7 years since his last exposure to the dangerous material, the Virginia Workers Compensation judge dismissed the claim. This Deputy Commissioner sadly told us (more…)

I try to review a client’s official file at the VWC early on in the case. I do that because at ABRAMS LANDAU, we want to build a strong foundation to the claim. Too many lawyers make the mistake of assuming they know what the judge is looking at or looking for - a BIG MISTAKE ! I take the time to actually examine the file the judge will be looking at, well before the trial, so that I know (and can explain to the client) what evidence is available and what is still needed. Here I am with one of the helpful clerks at the Virginia Workers Compensation Commission headquarters in Richmond. I was reviewing our injured and disabled clients’ files and making copies of important documents, such as the Accident Report, the Wage Chart and the Attending Physician’s Report. When I return to Herndon, the staff at the ABRAMS LANDAU injury law firm knows to send copies to our disabled clients and their families so that they can see what the judge is actually looking at, and give us prompt information about errors in the official accident reports, earnings records and other important documents.

Why is this important ? One reason I like to look at the official file is to learn things that my clients may not have told me, because of the severity of their brain injuries; because it is a fatal accident claim; because there may have been a loss of consciousness; long term memory loss and short term memory loss, which is not unusual after head trauma. Because we are all human and we all make mistakes, sometimes the material we field with the VWC is put in the wrong file. Also, I have seen other injured workers’ papers accidentally put in my clients’ files. My review of the official workers comp files has also revealed surveillance tapes and reports by private investigators who were hired by the insurance companies or their lawyers to follow and film my disabled clients. By actually looking at the official file, I am able to see if the VWC staff has tabbed, hi-lighted or flagged those items that the ABRAMS LANDAU Team has brought to their attention as needing immediate action. So, the next time my staff advises you that I am “on the road” and visiting the Virginia Workers Compensation Commission headquarters to review files, I am doing so to lay a sturdy foundation for the disabled clients of our Herndon Reston area injury law firm.

When Workers Compensation claims are filed by the team at ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd., they are sent to the Virginia Workers Compensation Commission Commission (”VWC”) headquarters in Richmond. The VWC headquarters has the Clerk’s Office, paper files, offices for a number of the judges (called “Deputy Commissioners”) and Hearing rooms. Shown here is the infamous “Sponge Bob-Mobile” used by Doug Landau to transport clients and files through all sorts of weather in front of the VWC HQ building at 1000 DMV Drive, off Broad Street, in Richmond.
This building is just East of the Science Museum and across the street from the Division of Motor Vehicles (”DMV”) building, which is pictured below. For those with Hearings at the VWC headquarters, or reviewing files, the DMV has a convenient, handicap accessible and inexpensive cafeteria. Doug Landau has had lunch with Deputy Commissioners and claims personnel there and it is one of the few places within walking distance.

On the 12th of August, 2008, Mr. George Milton Piper passed away. We still do not know the exact details of his untimely demise. We do know he was at work, at Chemung Contracting in Gainesville, located at 7201 Rail Line Court - near George Mason University, off of University Blvd. At the time, he was working for Labor Ready. Though there isn’t more information, you can read the report on WTOP news. If anyone has any information concerning his accident, please contact us so that we may better help his family.

When four generations of women came to my office seeking help for an innocent child being raised by her grandparents, none of imagined that the little girl would receive tax free payments for almost a decade.  The case arose as the result of the accidental death of a boom truck worker.  The basket on the truck accidentally touched a power line while the employee was making a call from a phone booth.  He saw the tires on his truck melting and ran to get the fire extinguisher as smoke was coming from the truck.  Once he touched  the metal cannister he was immediately electrified.  The voltage killed the employee almost instantly. The deceased employee left behind a daughter, who was being raised by her maternal grandparents, as her own mother was only a teenager herself.  While the decedent had never married the child’s mother, there was a Child Support Order.  The claim was denied by the insurance company.  I brought the Chiefs of the Police, Fire and Rescue Departments to Court to testify.  We won the case and several hundred thousand dollars in compensation benefits were paid to the grandparents so that they could enlarge their home and pay for their granddaughter’s education and care.  At ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. we try to make a happier ending on stories that come to us after tragedy.  

In a word, “NO.”  According to Herndon Reston area injury and disability lawyer Doug Landau, just because you are getting state workers compensation benefits does not mean you are automatically entitled to federal Social Security Disability benefits.  One government program has no influence over the other when it comes to determinations of eligibility.  At Abrams Landau, Ltd., in Herndon, Virginia, clients are instructed that STATE workers comp cases are generally decided in favor of workers who cannot do the job they did when they got injured.

Federal Social Security disability income claims not only require that the wage earner be unable to perform the kinds of jobs they did in their work life, but that they are also disabled from all jobs that are generally found in the national economy given their present physical and mental impairments.  It is because of the difference between the two government systems that it is important to have counsel who is experienced in BOTH Social Security Disability AND Workers Compensation in cases involving permanent injury, long term work impairment, brain injury and/or severe psychiatric illness.  An experienced workers comp and Social Security disability lawyer will know how best to use the medical evidence to help in BOTH cases, saving valuable time and expense.

A client who has been disabled for over 2 years with a head injury came, with his wife, to court yesterday in order to observe Mr. Landau “in action.” Many lawyers have to advertise in order to get new clients, and many pretend that they go to court and try cases. Not ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd.

Because we help a select group of permanently injured clients and those with long term disabilities, we can take the time to “walk the walk” WITH THEM. Doug Landau introduced this family to several of the judges and bailiffs, showed them all of the courtrooms where their case may take place, and let them ask questions of the client whose trial they had just observed. We know of no other lawyer or law firm that does all of these things for their injured and disabled clients and their families.

This Reston, Virginia family saw, firsthand, Mr. Landau’s “Court Credibility.” Doug Landau met with them and the client whose case was to be tried in Fairfax in the conference room. The Herndon Reston area injury lawyer then got everyone back together after the case was over. And, in order to help this disabled head injury victim better understand what was going on in his own case, Landau made copies from the government’s OFFICIAL file on the case then and there for him to take home and read over and put in his own file. This injured worker had never seen such important documents as: the official mandatory “FIRST REPORT OF ACCIDENT,” the audit report (showing an underpayment), and the “Attending Physicians Report.” Mr. Landau was also able to point out the items that were missing and that needed to be filed in order to fully protect his rights.

“Court Cred” means that you can talk about going to court AND actually do it. Come see us “in action” soon. Other lawyers from other firms do in order to learn from our successes. Call today, as Mr. Landau’s Court calendar and teaching schedule is an “open book”

The “Voices of September 11th”, has created a “9/11 Living Memorial” website where anyone can post their memories of people they knew or what they personally experienced on that tragic day.

The website was set up so that that mankind, hundreds of years from now, will be able to learn about and research all of the events surrounding that day. A similar memorial was recently set up for the few remaining Holocaust Survivors to post their memories. Most of the personal stories about what occurred in Europe during that time were never preserved publicly and are lost forever. The memorial will insure that the same thing does not happen to 9/11.

Postings are not limited to family members or people who were at the Trade Center, Pentagon or on the aircraft. It is open to anyone who has something meaningful to contribute. You can post remembrances of someone you loved, knew or just knew of. In the DC Metropolitan area almost everyone of us knew someone or a relative of someone who either was killed or injured. At ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd., we came to know many more through our representation of the families of those who died in the course of their work in the fatal airplane crashes. While we were successful in ensuring that all of the families and survivors got their compensation benefits provided under state law, no amount of money will ever erase the memories and the sorrow.

Please go to the Living Memorial website and post your comments, photographs, recordings etc. www.911livingmemorial.org/

This is your opportunity to have your memories become a part of history.

Escorting several DC public school students and teaches on a National Geographic field trip, a client of ours wound up on the ill-fated airliner that was hijacked by terrorists and crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11.  The Speiser Krause law firm had this family, as well as many others, contact us because of our experience handling catastrophic injury and fatality claims before the Virginia and Washington D.C. Workers Compensation Boards.   

In fact, Doug Landau essentially shut down the office in September to deal with all the cases and preserve the Statute of Limitations so that the time limits set by law would not be used by the insurance companies as an excuse not to pay the families of those who lost their lives in the course of their employment.  For more on this topic, Injury Board is a great resource.

 Unlike some of the other 9/11 cases we had brought, this case came under DC workers comp law because the decedent worked for a Washington D.C. employer.  We also filed in Virginia, as the Being 757 boarded at Dulles International Airport and the Pentagon is located on the Virginia side of the Potomac River.  The law allows filing in multiple jurisdictions.  Sometimes in the Washington, D.C. Metro area it is unclear what jurisdiction will be “primary” in a case.  While Abrams Landau can, and has, filed catastrophic injury and fatality claims in several states and the District of Columbia simultaneously, the law does not allow claimants or their families to get multiple benefits.  That is why it is important to compare the benefits of the several states that may have jurisdiction over a claim in order to determine a client’s rights and available resources.  

In this fatal airplane crash case, the deceased worker’s family has been paid over $230,000 (not including annual cost of living adjustments and increases) in DC Workers Comp benefits and may continue to get benefits until 2013 (approximately $175,000).