Landau Injury Law

Between gas prices being too high, cities funding bicycle lanes, and finding time to exercise; commuting via bicycle is looking better everyday.  Unfortunately for the fashionistas out there something which looks good doesn’t always “look”.  Many would-be cyclist are shying away from the idea because of hat-hair concerns or helmets clashing with outfits.  Now they can have another option which would give them the best of both “looks”.  Hövding, a Swedish company, has created a airbag helmet which is wore in a stylish collar.  The collar can detect an accident and will deploy a helmet shaped airbag.  The sensors are also smart enough to know the difference between a crash and everyday movement.  Though the most important feature is the removable shell which can come in an endless array of colors and patterns to match any outfit.  To check out the Hövding is action check out this test video.

If you would like to know more about helmet safety or the next event Herndon Law Shop will be at checking helmets contact us on our Facebook page.  If you have any legal question please fill out our contact form and we will respond promptly.

Wrongful death lawsuits filed by families of Virginia Tech students killed in the 2007 massacre in Blacksburg will move forward, a circuit court judge ruled November 22.  On April 16, 2009 — the two-year anniversary of the deadliest shooting on a college campus in U.S. history — lawsuits were filed in Fairfax County Circuit Court on behalf of two families who lost their daughters that day.  The plaintiffs said in a statement they hoped to receive accountability for the tragic events of April 16, 2007.  The lawsuit, which asks for a judgment of $10 million in compensatory damages, alleges university administrators were “less than candid” about responding to questions put to them by a university review panel that issued a report to former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D).

According to news reports, Judge William Alexander, who sits in Montgomery County Circuit Court in Christiansburg, initially ruled in January the case could proceed against (more…)

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.”

Having handled cases where defective fans cause sparks and fires, burn injury lawyer Doug Landau was intrigued by the Lasko Products case. According to the Philadelphia Daily News story, four years after a fire ignited by a faulty floor fan killed a 7-year-old Germantown boy, his family found some solace this week when a jury walloped the fan manufacturer, Lasko Products Inc. of West Chester, with a $13.5 million verdict. Lasko, the largest fan manufacturer in the United States, discovered a defect in the foreign-made motors in its portable fans in 1999 and developed corrective technology by 2004, said the boy’s attorney, Matthew D’Annunzio.

But the company did not alert consumers who already owned the defective fans or report the problem to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)until after 7-year-old Joshua Foster died in his burning apartment on June 14, 2005, according to the family’s counsel. Joshua usually camped out with his 9-year-old sister in their living room on hot nights to enjoy his home’s sole air-conditioner, D’Annunzio said. But he had crawled into his mother’s bed that night. Both awoke just before dawn to crackling noises and flames coming from the portable fan in the bedroom doorway. His mother scrambled out of bed to the kitchen faucet for water to douse the flames, mistakenly thinking her son had followed. Within seconds, a raging fire blocked the doorway, trapping Joshua and thwarting rescue attempts by his mother, sister and a neighbor. The boy died of thermal burns and smoke inhalation. City fire investigators determined that the blaze had started in the fan’s China-made motor.

After a 13-day trial in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, jurors on Wednesday found Lasko liable for Joshua’s death. They awarded his mother $4 million and sister $2 million for pain, suffering and emotional distress, $10,000 for funeral expenses and $7.5 million to the boy’s estate. Plaintiff’s counsel received about 42 reports of fans’ overheating, smoking, melting or catching fire between November 2002 and September 2005, but didn’t report them to the CPSC until September 2005, according to the commission. The commission announced in January that Lasko had agreed to pay a $500,000 civil penalty for failing to report those incidents. The commission and Lasko in February 2006 recalled 5.6 million fans that were manufactured between 1999 and 2001 and sold in stores as late as 2004 due to “a potential electrical failure in the fan motor [that] can pose a fire hazard.” The boy’s mother “feels vindicated, and just really wants the word out for people who didn’t hear about the Lasko recall; they should investigate the recall and protect themselves.”  For Recall information

At ABRAMS LANDAU, we have been contacted by car crash and dog attack victims many months after their injuries.  We sadly find out that the 911 tapes and other recordings that support their personal injury claims have been destroyed or recorded over.  Our office sends out letters requesting copies of the tapes, films and other media so that our clients will have this valuable evidence.  There are even cases that are brought for “spoliation” – where a Defendant has purposefully destroyed evidence that it knows has been requested in connection with an injury case.  Bottom line, according to New Jersey dog attack and car crash lawyer Doug Landau is to make sure the evidence is preserved and to seek qualified, experienced legal counsel immediately, BEFORE valuable evidence is destroyed, lost or recorded over.

Garden State injury lawyer Landau is often asked if the police and other law enforcement authorities can destroy, tape over or otherwise dispose of video, audio and other recordings.  The short answer is “yes.”  Just this week, the New Jersey Appellate Division ruled in a case where the police legally destroyed the police cruiser videotape.  In State v. Mustaro, the court denied a DWI defendant’s attempt to withdraw his guilty plea, on the basis that he had been deprived of potentially exculpatory evidence in the form of a police car videotape which would have proved he was not operating his vehicle at the time of his motor vehicle stop.  The police had destroyed the videotape as a matter of routine after the defendant’s initial plea of guilty. In analyzing the factors required under New Jersey law, the Court ruled that the lack of bad faith by the police in destroying the video, coupled with the speculative nature of the defendant’s claim of what was shown the video did not satisfy the test for withdrawal of a guilty plea.    If you, or someone you know, has been injured in an accident where there may be a 911 call, video tape, audio recording, computer e-mail, tape recording or other audio or video evidence, please e-mail or call us at ABRAMS LANDAU (703-796-9555)

A $2,850,000 verdict against the Otis Elevator Company reminds us at the Loudoun Fairfax ABRAMS LANDAU law firm of Norman Landau’s extraordinary case against this same defendant.  Landau’s case, on behalf of a child whose foot was crushed because of an excessive gap in the escalator’s steps, resulted in a record verdict in New York City.  When the gap between the moving steps and the metal sides of the escalator are wide enough, they create a dangerous trap or “pinch point” that can swallow a child’s foot or hand in seconds.  The extraction of the child’s limb from the moving machinery, however, can take a long time, during which, the child can be in excruciating pain and agony.  Injury Lawyer Doug Landau, Norman Landau’s son, recommends that parents hold on to their children whenever riding up or down an escalator, and that adults watch to make sure hands and feet do not come too close to the gap between the moving steps and the sides of the escalator.  If you see a large gap or damaged step, report it to the premises owner or operator immediately !

In the escalator accident case reported in the Worcester newspaper, a jury awarded $2.85 million to the plaintiff and his parents.  This tragic escalator accident occurred when the boy was only 4-years-old.  He was 13 at the time of trial.  The jury also found that Otis Elevator Co., the maker of the escalator in question, should pay the boy’s parent $250,000 each.  The lawyer for the plaintiffs had argued that the company was responsible because the settings on the specific escalator violated the company’s own safety standards.  The child’s hand was mangled after he fell on an escalator and his had was nearly amputated by the moving structure.  According to the report in the Insurance Journal, his hand slipped through a gap between the escalator and its side panels.   His father will use some of the money awarded for further surgery to improve the functionality of his son’s mangled hand.  If you, or someone you know, has been injured in an escalator or elevator accident, please e-mail or call us at ABRAMS LANDAU (703-796-9555), as there are legal time limits for bringing such claims, and a parent’s time limit may not be as long as that of their own child.

Top Virginia Trial Lawyers Roger Creager (Richmond), Doug Landau (Herndon - Reston), Barbara Williams (Leesburg), & Lee Livingston (Charlottesville) compared ideas on "independent" insurance medical examiners at the 2009 VTLA Annual Advocacy seminar in Fairfax

Almost every single case involving serious injury, permanent disability or significant wage loss is confronted by an insurance company lawyer demanding an “Independent Medical Examination.” The exam is usually not independent. It is not for treatment, so the “medical” part of the phrase is intellectually dishonest. And as for an “examination,” it’s often more of a cross-examination than a genuine physical exam.

“Independent” medical exams (“IMEs”) are commonplace in personal litigation, workers compensation, and occupational disease cases handled by ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. Because they are not truly “Independent,” as we see the same doctors performing exams for the same insurance companies who pay their bills, we refer to these as “defense medical exams” or “insurance medical exams.” A 3/31/09 New York Times investigation titled “Exams of Injured Workers Feed Mutual Mistrust,” reported that, “Often IME doctors are hired by brokers that then have clerical staffs prepare reports based on dictation or checklists completed by the doctors, who often do not read the reports before signing them. The article gives examples of doctors signing reports on exams they never performed. One of the ways Herndon Reston area injury lawyer Doug Landau anticipates this practice is by offering the insurance company a physical exam early in the case, sometimes even before a lawsuit is filed. “The case we select involve serious, objective and usually permanent injuries,” Landau notes. Because we have nothing to hide, I will offer to have my injured client submit to a voluntary physical exam with a qualified doctor, at a reasonable time and place, in lieu of a later examination after suit is filed.” In effect, it is a “put up or shut up” move by the multi-state trial lawyer, known for his unique and innovative techniques.

In a word, “no’ according to Herndon injury lawyer Doug Landau of ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd.  The Fairfax, Leesburg and Loudoun injury lawyer belongs to 5 state bars, so sees the difference between the various jurisdictions.  In most states, a lawyer must belong to the state bar association, pay annual dues and attend a minimum number of “Continuing Legal Education’ classes (“CLE”).  the best lawyers belong to a number of bar associations that have educational and practicer oriented programming, but who lobby on behalf of injured workers, victims and their families on Capitol Hill.  Since the injured victims and their families have no “lobby,” as is the case in the courtroom, the trial lawyers associations are their only “voice.”

Many lawyers, unfortunately, just attend this minimum number and belong to only the “mandatory bar associations.”  They do nothing else.  Either they are too cheap, too lazy, too swamped with cases they should not be handling or a combination of those factors.  They do not learn: the latest changes in the law, trial techniques, technical advances or changes in the Code of Ethics.  Landau believes so strongly in continuing legal education, that he not only takes many more hours of CLE than is required in all the states where he practices; the firm also pays for staff to attend these all-important programs.

Furthermore, Landau also belongs to various “voluntary” bar associations.  Landau belongs to the American Association for Justice, the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, Workers Injury Law&Advocacy Group and other organizations that help injured victims and their families.  Landau is shown here before his speech (on fractured hips and elderly clients) with another “second generation ATLA member” Stephen Herman of New Orleans, Louisiana at the InjuryBoard meeting in Florida.  Landau and Herman shared insights into the handling of personal injury cases and how best to help their cleints, just as their fathers did before them.  Both know it is important not just to pay the dues, but to actually participate, teach and share their knowledge in order to help those who have been injured or lost loved ones due to the negligence or reckless conduct of others.

When we go on holiday to a resort, spa, hotel, amusement park or camp, we do not expect the owners or operators to be “on a vacation” when it comes to safety. Doug Landau of ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. contributed hundreds of pages to the three volume PREMISES LIABILITY books published by Lexis-Nexis. Under premises liability law, every property owner has a legal obligation to keep its premises reasonably safe and protect customers from danger. This applies to hotel, motel, resort, spa, tennis camps, golf resorts, and amusement or theme park owners. Premises Liability law also generally holds that the premises owner or operator must also warn guests of any (more…)

Going to court is no laughing matter. The clients of ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. have all been permanently injured and are often disabled due to severe injuries and illnesses. Doug Landau and the trial team screen cases so that only the most serious claims are taken to court. Sprains, strains and minor injury cases are not handled by this law firm, but are referred to lawyers who do handle these cases. By concentrating on fewer cases with greater staffing, ABRAMS LANDAU is able to concentrate resources and focus on our disabled clients and their families.

One of the ways Doug Landau and his staff is able to help permanently injured clients prepare for court is by meeting them at court, well in advance of their trial, and giving them a tour of the facilities so that they will know where to go, where to park, where to meet and who are the people they will likely see. In this way, Loudoun Fairfax Injury Board member Doug Landau reduces anxiety so that his injured clients and their families can avoid the distractions and anxieties most other plaintiffs have when they go to court unprepared and uninformed. For those ABRAMS LANDAU clients who make the effort to see Mr. Landau “in action” before their own Court date, there is even a candy bowl at the clerks’ desks ! Shown here after a recent evidentiary hearing with one of these candy bowls are Doug Landau and Shawn Shook of ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. If you want to see us “in action,” e-mail Beatrice at FrontDesk@LandauLawShop.com or call 703-796-9555. She has our calendar and can share with you our trial, speech, hearing, lecture, travel and racing schedule