Landau Injury Law

Shown here are Shawn Shook of ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd., and Jimmy of “Jimmy’s Old Town Tavern” in front of the Herndon Festival Carnival. The sinking ship in the background is an inflatable slide erected as part of htese annual festivities. However, injuries and illnesses sustained on cruise ships are no laughing matter. Prosecuting cruise ship injury claims is a complicated process. Sustaining an injury while on a cruise and filing a claim against that cruise company will require that you get an experienced trial lawyer. Existing laws favor the cruise ship companies by requiring injured victims and their families to get over hurdles not found in other areas of the law. These “hurdles” include a shorter time limit for bringing a claim. Common claims against cruise ship companies include:

• Injuries on board a cruise ship
• Slip and falls, trip and falls getting on and off the boat or while on the ship itself
• Injuries while on trips, shore excursions or other activities (i.e., jetskiing, fishing, snorkeling, etc.) arranged or sanctioned by the cruise ship company
• Food poisoning or other illnesses or diseases
• Physical & sexual assaults by cruise ship crew members

If you have suffered injury or illness while on a cruise ship, please e-mail us at FrontDesk@LandauLawShop.com or call 703-796-9555 at once.

Nigel Haskett was working at a McDonald’s last August when he interceded to stop a man who was beating a woman in the restaurant. The assailant, later identified as Perry Kennon, went outside. Haskett also stepped outside and stood at the door to keep Kennon from re-entering the restaurant. Kennon retrieved a gun from his car and shot Haskett several times. The injured McDonald’s employee underwent three abdominal surgeries and still carries part of a bullet in his back. Haskett’s medical bills exceed $300,000. Kennon was arrested and charged with first-degree battery. At his arraignment, where he pleaded innocent, District Judge Lee Munson lectured Kennon about his long criminal record and lauded Haskett: “Here is this young man working for minimum wage, coming to the aid of a woman.” Munson passed the case on to Pulaski Circuit Court, and he and his court reporter each contributed $100 to a fund for Haskett that was set up by Twin City Bank.

Haskett filed a claim with the state Workers Compensation Commission. A claims specialist with McDonald’s insurer said in a letter to the Commission that “we have denied this claim in its entirety as it is our opinion that Mr. Haskett’s injuries did not arise out of or within the course and scope of his employment.” The case is pending before the Workers Compensation Commission. No hearing has been set.  Watch security video of shooting.  Everyone at ABRAMS LANDAU wishes Mr. Haskett success in his case and commends his heroism.

The family of a security worker trampled to death by Wal-Mart shoppers on New York’s Long Island filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the retail giant.  The 34-year-old man was knocked to the ground and trampled to death. He had been assigned to cover security as an independent contractor.

In the lawsuit, the family claims the worker’s death was caused by reckless and gross negligence in the staging and promotion of “Black Friday” sales. The lawsuit also names the shopping center where the incident occurred and the security company hired to manage additional shopper traffic.  Reuters 12/03/08.  While there may be bargains, Herndon Reston area Doug Landau prefers to stay far “away from the maddening crowds.”   Everyone at Abrams Landau, Ltd. recognizes the pall this tragedy puts on the holiday season, an suggests that our clients shop carefully, safely and responsibly this year.

First, just like Herndon Reston injury lawyer Doug Landau, Life Care Planners have to read the medical records.  This is not easy.  Not only do some doctors have handwriting that would be impossible for an FBI expert to decipher, but in a traumatic brain injury case, spinal cord injury or paralysis claim, these records are often many hundreds of pages long !  And you cannot just “skim” or “speed read” them, because important information for the life care planner is often found in the details, the nurses’ notes and the abbreviations and test results.

The Life Care Planner uses a standard process to identify the recommendations, including those made by the treating physicians, regarding the medical equipment, services, and treatment required by the patient to promote good health, prevent deterioration and encourage independence. This is not simply a chart to provide minimal assistance, but a flow chart to prevent atrophy from disuse, deterioration and the patient from becoming decrepit.  Through this process the Life Care Planner also identifies the cost, frequency and purpose of the treatments, examinations, therapy modalities and equipment upkeep and replacement. Vendors assist to determine the yearly cost of the item, and a projected life expectancy is utilized to provide costs in today’s dollar amount. The Virginia Code has a Life Expectancy chart (found at Va. Code 8.01-419), and major insurance carriers likewise have charts showing expected duration of life at different given ages.  At ABRAMS LANDAU we will then bring in an economist to evaluate and give us a range of figures for the plan with cost of living variables.

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…)