Landau Injury Law

It seems so simple. I was hit in a car crash, my bumper was smashed, the fender dented and then I started noticing aches and pains that I did not have before. It makes sense that I was injured in the crash—even my doctor says so—that’s enough to prove the case, right?

Even if your car is smashed across the street from the Landau Law Shop, on the corner of Station Street & Center Street, and the Herndon Virginia Police charge the other driver, you still have to prove legal causation of your subsequent disability and pain in order to be reimbursed !

This is a common—and completely logical—perception of many accident victims. And then the attorney starts talking and things suddenly do not seem so straight-forward anymore. Suddenly the issues isn’t “I was fine before the accident and now I’m not” and instead the issue is “legal proof” or “legal cause” or “proximate cause”. So, what is all of this about?  What’s the difference ?  If I hurt or am disabled after a crash, then the accident must be the cause.  How can we de-mystify all of this lawyer-speak?

If you are the victim of a car wreck, bike crash, dog bite attack or some other type of personal injury, then the topic of “causation” is certain (more…)

What costs or fees are routinely allowed a prevailing Plaintiff in Virginia Circuit Court case ?

Herndon Virginia injury lawyer Doug Landau frequently advises clients as to, "How long, how hard and how much" in their accident and disability cases

Under the American justice system, the losing side generally does not pay the attorney fees of the winner.  In other posts, Herndon Virginia injury lawyer Doug Landau has discussed the payment of per-judgment and post-judgment interest.  Other costs and fees a losing Defendant may have to pay are  very limited.  They are generally limited to just filing fees (required to start a lawsuit in the County or City Circuit Court), writ tax, and service of process (the cost to have a Sheriff “serve” or give the papers to the Defendants). Jury costs are generally taxed against the losing party, but that is paid to the court, not the winner. A winning Plaintiff (more…)

The founder of the “Anne Arundel County (MD) Breaking News and Events” FaceBook page was killed in a car accident this weekend, according to police and news reports. Two teens received minor injuries in this car crash.  David McDermott, of Pasadena Maryland, was pronounced dead at the scene. McDermott was one of the founders of the Maryland news site that featured traffic and accident updates as well as other community news and information.  According to police, excessive speed may have been a factor.  All of us at ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. are saddened by this news, and hope that this popular Maryland news and information site will continue to inform and educate.

Sometimes lawyers take on cases that they are not equipped, staffed or experienced to take.  We represent a cyclist who was struck by a car.  He originally retained a Loudoun County lawyer for his personal injury case.  That lawyer, David Young of the Leesburg law firm Ault & Young, was given records, bills, exhibits and other evidence in order to submit the claim and settle the crash injury claim with the defendant driver’s car insurance company.  However, as we see all too often, the Leesburg lawyer did not have the ability to properly bring the case forward; he and his staff did not return the injured cyclist’s telephone calls, and the two year time limit for such a personal injury case in Virginia was soon to run.

The cyclist called our Herndon Virginia law firm, and we tried to call, e-mail, write and fax this lawyer and law firm.  As we tell all similar callers, we told the injured victim we could not represent him while already had counsel for the case.  Yet with the time limit (“statute of limitations”) running and no word or proof of any work or investment by the so-called Loudoun County personal injury lawyer, the cyclist fired his original counsel and cyclist lawyer Doug Landau stepped in, filed the lawsuit to save (more…)

Virginia workers compensation lawyer Doug Landau of the Herndon law firm ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd., after a recent permanent total disability ("PTD") court hearing in Fairfax

Rarely do disabled Virginia Workers get more than 500 weeks of wage loss compensation.  Even in fatal accident cases, the families of the deceased workers do not even get 10 years of benefits.  However, in very limited cases, where the injured worker has lost BOTH arms, legs, eyes, hands or feet, they can apply for “Permanent Total Disability” (“PTD”) benefits.

Doug Landau of the Herndon law firm ABRAMS LANDAU has tried “Permanent Total” cases for disabled worker who “have lost the use of their arms (more…)

After a number of decisions where the disabled worker lost continuing wage loss benefits because their efforts to look for light duty work did not pass muster, the Full Commission of the Virginia Workers Compensation ruled in favor of a claimant on this difficult issue !  In Waldman vs. Wal-Mart, the testimony was that approximately 70% of the job search (or “marketing”) contact were online, and of those places, she filled out applications, 75% were done online.  The injured claimant estimated that only 2-3% of her entries involved traveling to the place of employment and asking about jobs within her restrictions.  During a 25 week period there was documentation of 110 prospective employers working out to 4.4 job contacts per week.  While the majority war eon line, the remainder were from newspapers and in person.  The Virginia Workers Comp trial judge found that the disabled worker adequately marketed her remaining capacity to work.  She did document the source of her job leads, reviewed the local newspapers, used Craigslist, Fburg.com and a friend.  Her documentation included where she sent resumes and applications pr telephoned.  The injured claimant obtained several interviews.  The Full Commission noted, “the economy is difficult for job seekers,..we find that the claimant’s marketing efforts were adequate in number, quality and breadth of work sought, and that her documentation establishes her intent to find suitable work.”

The “bottom line” according to Ashburn, Ashburton and Broadlands area workers comp lawyer Doug Landau is “to keep detailed records of calls, interviews, online forms, in-persons meetings, resumes sent, newspaper “Want Ads” reviewed, correspondence received.  In short, be ready to show evidence of weekly marketing evidence, with actual documents, at a Hearing or face the prospect of having your weekly wage loss compensation cut off by a Virginia Workers Comp judge.”

Injured workers need to be ready to "show" and not just "tell" a Virginia Workers Compensation judge what they have done to look for light work that they CAN do

It’s gotten harder, but the short answer, according to Herndon Reston workplace injury lawyer Doug Landau is “yes.”  Two 2010 cases made it look like a partial disabled worker would always lose on the issue of marketing unless they were “pounding pavement” every single day.

In the 2010 Ruffin case, the Full Virginia Workers Comp Commission (“VWC”) affirmed the trial judge’s denial of benefits on the basis that she had not adequately marketed her remaining physical abilities in order to find light duty work that she could actually do.  The injured worker’s evidence included 97 job searches, the vast majority of which were online.  Even though she also had taken classes at the local library in her desire to be taught a new skill for employment, the VWC found the disabled worker’s computer searches over an 10 month period were not adequate marketing.  Likewise, the same year in the Simon vs. Kmart case, the injured worker was seeking continued wage loss (indemnity) benefits and had contacted 15 potential employers (more…)

Whyen an injured worker can collect Virginia Workers Compensation benefits AND bring a "third party claim" against an unsafe truck driver, then counsel can make for a "win-win" situation where the disabled workers is able to get "full compensation" AND their employer gets paid back on their "Comp lien" - a fact well-known to Loudoun County lawyer Doug Banks and Melissa Landau of ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. in Herndon, VA

At the Herndon law firm ABRAMS LANDAU we are often asked by perplexed personal injury lawyers and disabled workers to decipher the Virginia Workers Compensation Act to determine when an on the job accident is “compensable.”  An employee can be injured in a Virginia workplace mishap but be “barred” by what is know as “the Workers Compensation bar.”  This is not a place where you belly up for a tiff one of an association of occupational injury lawyers, but rather the operation of the Comp laws that prevent an injured victim from bringing a negligence or “third party liability case.”

Under Virginia comp law, an employee accidentally injured by a co-worker or a boss cannot sue for damages in court if the incident is covered by the employer’s workers compensation insurance.  Likewise, a disabled worker cannot sue another who is in “the same trade or occupation” as their employer, even if (more…)

Since 2008, the Virginia courts have ruled repeatedly against the injured worker on the issue of “marketing.”  Herndon’s injured workers lawyer Doug Landau frequently hears from claimants (and so-called personal injury attorneys) who are baffled by this requirement under Virginia law.  What is “marketing” in the context of the Virginia Workers Compensation Act ?  It is simply an injured worker’s good faith effort to look for work that they CAN do, despite their injuries or disability.  In National Linen Serv. v. McGuinn (Virginia Court of Appeals, 1989), a case I had argued an appeal on, the appellate court discussed a CLAIMANT’S DUTY TO MARKET HIS RESIDUAL CAPACITY:

“Where an employee’s disability is partial, to establish his entitlement to benefits, he must prove that he made a reasonable effort to market his residual work capacity.”  In determining whether the employee has met his burden of proof, the [Virginia Workers Compensation] Commission should consider the following:

• (1) the nature and extent of [the] employee’s disability;
• (2) the employee’s training, age, experience, and education;
• (3) the nature and extent of [the] employee’s job search;
•  (4) the employee’s intent in conducting his job search;
• (5) the availability of jobs in the area suitable for the employee, considering his disability; and
• (6) any other matter affecting [the] employee’s capacity to find suitable employment.

In posts over the next fortnight, we will discuss these requirements in more detail.

VIRGINIA LAWYERS WEEKLY Editor in Chief Paul Fletcher and Workers Comp attorney Doug Landau of the Herndon law firm ABRAMS LANDAU, discussing the Mediation of a workplace lifetime disability injury case

While any lawyer can ask for and participate in the free Mediation offered by the Virginia Workers Compensation Commission, it takes time, effort, experience and money to be properly prepared to Mediate a permanent injury or total disability case. The best Virginia Workers Compensation lawyers in Virginia come prepared with their own settlement evaluation and have discussed the issues thoroughly with their clients, and others who have a stake in the outcome of the case. Poorly prepared lawyers, attorneys who try cases “on the cheap,” and the volume law firms rarely invest the time and resources to be fully prepared to Mediate permanent disability and catastrophic workplace injury claims.

The best Virginia workers comp lawyers go into Mediation committed to negotiating in good faith. They know the range of values of the case and have had experience with similar cases in Mediation and at trial. The data that is usually assembled well before the week of the Mediation include:

1. The compensation rate
2. The average pre-injury weekly wage
3. The weeks left under the Award
4. Permanency rating(s)
5. Partial Disability rates
6. Present day values
7. Current Medical Status
8. Average Monthly Cost to date
9. Anticipated future care ross
10. Medications, mileage, DME and other reimbursements
11. Statutory Life Expectancy
12. Age-Rated Life Expectancy
13. Present Value of Medical Care, RX, DME, mileage reimbursements, etc.
14. Likelihood of payments, due to (more…)