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.  

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 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. 

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…)

Airports, stores, gas stations, parking lots and other places where people get hurt have tape recordings of what happens on their “turf.” These tapes (or CDs, DVDs, etc.) often provide strong evidence of what really happened when someone gets hurt or attacked. Virginia “Super Lawyer” Doug Landau secured the actual Airport DVD showing the Defendant Security Supervisor taking his client to a remote place where she was sexually assaulted later that night ! (See 10/29/07 entry “Sexual assault by an airport security supervisor”)

In another case that came to Herndon personal injury lawyer Doug Landau, his client was struck by a “hit and run” driver. This nurse was leaving Alexandria Hospital after her shift and woke up in the roadway in front of the staff parking lot with her legs shattered. Doug Landau recalled that there were surveillance cameras (more…)