TheAthletesLawyer

The plaintiff, a 12-year-old boy, was riding his bicycle on December 27, 2006, when he was struck at the intersection of Old Nuckols Road and Nuckols Road in Henrico County by a minivan. The plaintiff was initially hospitalized at VCU Medical Center and was later transferred to Children’s Hospital in Norfolk for rehabilitation. As a result of the child’s traumatic brain injury (with left parietal epidural hematoma), broken teeth and facial lacerations, he (or should I say his parents) had medical bills of $136,750.14.

This bicycle crash case settled for policy limits of $300,000.00 and benefits for the minor were structured to provide him a total payout amount of $438,079.58. Herndon Reston head injury and brain trauma lawyer Doug Landau notes that settlements of children’s traumatic brain injury cases should be approved by the Court where the case is pending. Court supervision helps ensure that the injured child cyclist’s welfare is protected and that the disbursements of money is appropriately made. At ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd., we have structured settlements for a number of clients over the years. The structuring of a settlement for an injured child is often a good idea so as to avoid dissipation of the settlement and to create a regular, tax-free income. The Henrico Circuit Court, where Doug Landau has appeared before the judges in order to get the approval of a compromise settlement in a child’s dog bite case, also approved the settlement in this boy’s bike crash and brain injury case.

The Reston Masters Swim Team is holding their annual 1 and 2 mile lake swim races and open water clinic May 23-24, 2009. All events will take place at Lake Audubon in Reston, Virginia, the same body of water where the sold-out Reston Triathlon is contested. The Reston Masters have hosted the USMS National Open Water Championships, in 1997 and 2007. Proceeds from the swims benefit the Lymphoma Foundation of America.

The Jim McDonnell 1- and 2-Mile Lake Swims follow an open water 1 mile long course with buoys. Swimmers go around the buoys in a counter-clockwise direction staying between the buoys and the shore (twice for the 2 mile swim).

Many multisport athletes use it to train for upcoming triathlons & the Chesapeake Bay Swim in June. The open water swim clinic will be held Sat., 5/23, while 1 and 2 mile races will be on Sunday. There will b wetsuit and non-wetsuit divisions. Wetsuits can be rented from long time sponsor Bonzai Sports. For those new to open water swimming (AKA “newbies” like the wee fellow on my lap to the left !), this is an excellent chance to get acquainted with the unique demands of endurance water sport. Plus, the clinic promotes safety and there are experienced instructors to answer questions and give advice. Lastly, you want to avoid any “illegal swimming,” as written about by TriathlonTrialLawyer Doug Landau in prior posts.

By racing at the USAT “National Duathlon Festival” and teaching new trial judges, Northern Virginia injury lawyer Doug Landau is able to visit Richmond, Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania car crash, dog bite, job accident and disabled clients close to home.

This year’s New Judge Orientation program has the Herndon Reston brain injury and disability lawyer scheduled to appear at the John Marshall Courts Building, Court 307, Thursday afternoon, April 30th. Landau will also be meeting with witnesses April 24-26th. Leading Defense team #3, the ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. trial lawyer will be helping to train a new Tidewater Circuit Court judge during the Pre-bench Orientation program. This excellent legal training and continuing educational program is conducted under the auspices of the Supreme Court of Virginia’s Educational Services Department. The personal injury case Landau presents involves a slip and fall at a bus stop. The plaintiff fell on ice that had not been removed from a wooden platform in downtown Richmond. If you would like to watch, participate or meet with Mr. Landau during these trips, please call Beatriz Vargas at the ABRAMS LANDAU Front Desk (703-796-9555) at once.

The Manassas Park Festival of Races – 5K, 10K, 10 Miler & kids fun run presented an opportunity for Triathlon Trial Lawyer Doug Landau to test his “duathlon legs” before next month’s USAT National Duathlon Championship and World Championship qualifier. Running after cycling, when the leg muscles are fatigued, presents challenged unique to the multisport athlete. Staged out of Signal Hill Park, this new Northern Virginia running event was timed by Set Up Events, the same outfit that puts on the superb Virginia Triathlon Series. Doug Landau is shown here getting Set Up Events’ Greg Hawkins’ autograph at the finish line ! Landau raced in the hilly 10km in the rain, then rode his stationary bike under a park shelter (so as to avoid any chance of a bike crash or other sports injury), and then quickly transitioned in order to run in the 5km. Shown below, Landau is riding his bicycle on his cyclops fluid trainer while getting caught up on his reading ! It is hoped that this specific training will pay dividends in Richmond April 26th.

While in New York and New Jersey last week helping a dog attack victim who was recently attacked while out jogging, Sports Injury Lawyer Doug Landau was struck by how many deposition questions centered upon the client’s PRE-accident interaction with dogs. At depositions (or “Examinations Before Trial” or “EBTs” in New York), insurance defense counsel is allowed to ask a lot of nosey questions. The Defendant dog owners’ lawyers are allowed to ask about “relevant” facts, as in trial, but also about matters “that may lead to relevant and discoverable information.” Even with this wide latitude, the Herndon and Reston sports injury and disability lawyer was surprised to hear some of the questions being put to the victim of a vicious attack by several dogs. His emotionally and physically scarred client was asked:

• Did you grow up with dogs ?
• Did your neighbors or friends have dogs ?
• What kinds of dogs ? How did you get along with these animals ?
• Did you have significant pre-injury interaction with dogs ?
• Describe your prior dog contacts
• What did you do prior to this attack when confronted by hostile dogs ?
• Do you interact with people with seeing-eye dogs or guide dogs ?
• Did you have any concerns about about dogs in general ?

Insurance Company lawyers will often allege (and seek facts to prove) that the victim of the dog attack “baited,” “antagonized” or somehow caused the animal to charge, claw and bite. The trial team at ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. has been successful in preventing the Defendant dog owners and homeowners insurance companies from winning cases using this tactic. Let us help you and your innocent loved ones who may have been attacked and injured by dogs and other animals. Our experience can help prepare you for the attacks yet to come, from the insurance company and their “hired guns.”

“Any time an injured athlete can make use of the “down time” to work on weaknesses; improve their minds, or expand their opportunities, it is a good thing,” according to Herndon and Reston Virginia Sports Injury Lawyer Doug Landau. “This is so because no matter how good a lawyer I may be, I can never get them back the time they have lost. I cannot turn back the clock.”

The TriathlonTrialLawyer was responding to a USA Today 3/13/09 Sports Section article about a top professional whose Tennis “Injury allowed her to pursue dream.” This young woman pursued her studies while off the tour nursing an injury. Landau admired her tenacity and ability to direct her energy and focus into improving her mind while her body healed. That way, after her career as a professional athlete is over, she will have the ability to transition into the workforce and not have to rely on, and live off, her tennis earnings. Virginia Sports Injury Lawyer Doug Landau learned this lesson early on, as he became proficient at stringing tennis rackets while a student at the All American Sports Academy. Landau could earn money even when he was injured and could not play or teach tennis, by stringing rackets and repairing grips

While in Washington, D.C. for a Deposition, Triathlon Trial Lawyer Doug Landau managed to test his early season speed at the DCRRC monthly “Tidal Basin 3k.” This was the 422nd running of this low-key event in our Nation’s Capitol. With the gorgeous spring weather and buds just starting to form on the cherry trees, the runners were treated to optimal conditions and XS Energy Drink before & after the race (courtesy of Julie & Dan Clark of Clark Health Zone).

In addition to record-setting racer Ted Poulos, and DC Running Coach Michael Hamberger, 2:14 Kenyan marathoner Elisha Tanui, on his first day in Washington DC to run SunTrust National Marathon, jogged the race and then signed autographs. Hamberger (shown with The AthletesLawyer Landau, above left, & the Washington Monument) finished runner up in under 10 minutes. With such a stacked field, Landau was far back in the listings, making the top 3rd in 12:05.

However, “Half of winning is just showing up.” Landau won a case of XS Energy Drink in the post-race raffle. The Herndon Reston Virginia sports injury and accident lawyer is shown here on his tippy toes (L-R) with frequent Potomac Valley road racer and walker Peter Blank, Tanui and Julie Clark of Clark Health Zone.

Those who know the busy and energetic multi-state trial lawyer may question the wisdom of giving him anything caffeinated. Nevertheless, these pictures are evidence of the “you’ll never know unless you show” race and trial motto Landau and the ABRAMS LANDAU team espouse. Doug Landau hopes to see other friends, clients and their families at future trials and competitions.

Luckily, Doug Landau races for fun and to raise money for charities. As an amateur athlete, the “Triathlon Trial Lawyer” has on several occasions won prize money, which he has donated to charities, teams and schools. The Herndon and Reston Virginia injury and Social Security Disability lawyer has accumulated an impressive t-shirt collection as the result of racing all over the world. Visitors to the Landau Law Shop in Herndon are offered items from the office’s “overflow cabinet” and shirts, water bottles and other goodies are sent to young clients all over the country. Sports injury lawyer Doug Landau has also donated unused race clothing to local schools (for smocks, tie-dying projects and car washes), as his drawers at home have reached, to quote Mrs. Landau, “critical mass.”

Here TheAthletesLawyer is shown with a check he won in a Dutchess County (New York) Road Runners 10 mile race while in Connecticut as a chaperone for his son’s high school dance and after party. Landau, who went to the race with a faculty member who was also a prize winner, donated the check to The Hotchkiss School Athletic Boosters, where he was on the Alumni Board of Directors.

One positive aspect of representing competitive and recreational athletes is that they tend to heal from traumatic injury quickly and completely. When Virginia Sports Injury Lawyer Doug Landau is asked “Why are athletes’ flesh wounds, like dog bites, not stitched up right away ?” he notes that sports medicine doctors are aware that their patients run the risk of infection. Bikers who “wipe out” on the road often have severe “road rash.” Oil, dirt, grease and other contaminants can get under the skin, scabs and healing flesh and present opportunity for infection. Just as with dog attack bite wounds, emergency room doctors will not stitch the injury site, so that the saliva, hair and other contaminants from the animal will not get trapped under the skin and cause infection and sepsis.

In cases of bleeding injuries on artificial turf, the rubber and other man-made materials can get trapped under the skin and cause adverse reactions and infection. Triathlon Trial Lawyer Doug Landau runs barefoot in the warmer weather, and has gotten material imbedded in his feet and ankle that have become infected. Likewise, most sports injuries occur not when the skin is clean, pristine and newly washed, but where there is sweat (with uric acid, which causes its acrid smell as time passes), grime, spilled sports drinks, dirt, dust, and even bodily fluids from other participants (ever been in a “scrum,” football “pileup” or amateur wrestling or boxing match ?). By leaving the wounds “open” or unstitched, and covered by gauze with antibiotics, doctors can monitor the healing process and prevent infectious agents from delaying the athlete’s recovery or making the injury worse by subcutaneous infection.

As a high school wrestler and the father of an All-Prep wrestler, the recent conclusion of a paralyzed high school grappler’s personal injury case was of special interest to me and the rest of the trial team at Abrams Landau, Ltd.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, reported that the Seattle Public Schools have agreed to pay $15 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a former high school wrestler who was paralyzed during a practice session. According to an attorney for Mac Clay, coaches failed to use proper safety procedures and were not properly certified by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association. At the time of the incident, Clay, who now uses a wheelchair, was a three sport standout at West Seattle High School.

Mac Clay, then a senior, was at wrestling practice in the school cafeteria when he was driven backward into two wrestlers going in the opposite direction. The accident left him with limited use of his arms and no movement in his fingers and triceps. At the time, 13 wrestling team members were practicing using one mat on the concrete floor, although there were extra mats nearby. “They didn’t follow the normal safety rules,” said one of Clay’s lawyers. “The coaches weren’t certified and hadn’t attended safety classes required” by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association. The settlement payment is covered by the school district’s insurance carrier, but had it been more than $15 million, the difference would have come directly from the district.