Super Lawyer Doug Landau, working as “local counsel” for former “D.C. Trial Lawyer of the year Aaron Levine, helped this cyclist who was struck while training with his teammates in Reston.  Both attorneys are listed in “The Best Lawyers in America,” and have worked together on major cases.  Mr. Levine is as knowledgeable in medicine as he is in law, and his brilliance at trial and in negotiation in unparalleled. Senior counsel Levine was Herndon Trial Lawyer Landau’s first boss in the legal field after graduate school in Applied Anatomy & Physiology back in 1981 !  In this job before law school, young Landau was brought on as an assistant to the Levine office’s medical personnel !

While riding in a peloton off of the main roadways, the group was surprised by the unsafe actions of the inexperienced young driver who plowed into Landau and Levine’s client, shattering his leg.  The case was filed in the United States Federal Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division.  The insurance company hired one of Virginia’s most aggressive and antagonistic defense lawyers.  This lawyer ridiculed the injured cyclist for paying thousands of dollars for his bike.  “What kind of person pays five thousand dollars for a bicycle ?” this bombastic blowhard demanded to know.  Our client looked him the eye, unafraid, and answered simply:

I have never had the “best” of anything.  I am out of college, with a good job, and little overhead.  I am single, with no dependents, and have a short commute to work and simple needs.  But my recreation, my favorite activity, is cycling with my friends and racing.  I found that I could have the “best”bicycle, which I could ride every day after work.  So I bought this bike, which was the best and which was worth more than my car, until your client smashed into us.  

Doug Landau traveled to New York City in order to take the deposition of the young Defendant driver, who was attending college in “The Big Apple.”  After the pre-trial “Discovery” process was completed in this automobile negligence action, the case came before United States Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division’s Judge Brinkema.  This experienced federal judge let her displeasure with the defense lawyer’s antics be known.  Levine and Landau had shown little patience for insurance defense counsel’s shenanigans during their client’s testimony.  Herndon Super Lawyer Doug Landau and world famous D.C. co-counsel recovered the full $300,000 car insurance policy limits for this innocent young cyclist struck while training with his teammates in Reston.