Landau Injury Law

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 that within the next five to ten years, mediation will become a standard part of the practitioner’s professional life. Without question, this audience will mediate more cases than they will try going forward.
Cases amenable to mediation
The first question that often arises in this context is what type of case should be considered for mediation. I agree with Chief Justice Carrico that “[g]enerally… almost any civil dispute is amenable to mediation.” (The Virginian Pilot, March 27, 1995.) About the only case that is not appropriate for mediation is one in which the parties need a judicial decision as a precedent for future planning or course of conduct.
Mediation can be used in nearly every type of civil dispute, including personal injury resulting from automobile and other accidents; product liability; premises liability; medical malpractice; dissolution of partnerships and corporations; business disputes related to buying and selling businesses; domestic relations; civil rights issues arising out of sex, race and age discrimination; employment disputes; and trust and estate disputes.
Herndon injury and disability lawyer Doug Landau agrees that some form of Alternate Dispute Resolution (”ADR”) should be considered in every case. Even the most serious brain damage, concussion and head injury cases may be resolved by good faith mediation. Mediation is one form of ADR; Arbitration and Neutral Evaluation are the other forms of dispute resolution that Landau has utilized successfully in past cases. While ADR does not resolve every single case, the experience at ABRAMS LANDAU. Ltd. has been that the great majority of cases do in fact settle during, or after mediation with a skilled Mediator like Judge Harris of the McCammon Group.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 1:22 am and is filed under Auto Accidents, Children's Claims, Disability, Negligence Cases, Premises liability, preparing for Court. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.