The Athlete's Lawyer

With the warmer spring weather now upon us, TriathonTrialLawyer Doug Landau is seeing more cyclists on the trails and roads.  Landau hopes to soon be rolling down from the ABRAMS LANDAU building to join the Reston Bike Club evening rides that start a stone’s throw away in the Herndon Municipal parking lot at the 20 mile marker on the W&OD Trail.  However, it is better to be a safe and smart cyclist than first out of the lot and in the peloton.

One strategy for safe cycling is to travel in manageable groups.  There is “safety in numbers” and if you go down due to equipment failure or defective product, having your mates nearby can be invaluable, both physiologically, as well as psychologically.  I have flatted more than once or had “bike frame issues” and been glad that my buddies were with me, had the right spare parts, and even came back to pick me up.  Also, if the group is communicating well with hand signals and audible instructions, you have the benefit of multiple eyes and ears on the road.  Having everyone scanning the roadways for speeding drivers, distracted motorists and inattentive pedestrians, can save you from a lot of pain, disability  and lost training time.  Also watch for opening doors, where the person leaving their car or truck is not looking out for cyclists.  To the person exiting the car, van or truck, bicyclists are relatively silent, small and speedy.  So this Spring, be smart, be safe, and be  careful.

Books that heavily influenced my running training include:

“Neuromuscular Mechanisms for Therapeutic & Conditioning Exercise,” (University Park Press, 1976) by my Professor Howard Knuttgen, Ph.D. Dr. Knuttgen, was the Associate Dean of the Sargent College of Allied Health Professions at Boston University, where I studied human physiology, ergonomics, anatomy and exercise science.

“Winning Running (The Oregon System: A mental and physical approach to competitive running)”, by Bill Dellinger (Contemporary Books, 1978). Dellinger, the Head Coach at the University of Oregon, was the National cross country “coach of the year” when this book came out, and his team was National cross country champion the year before. Following the book’s training schedules, I was able to run some very fast times (i.e., 16:35 5km, 28:52 8km, 36:04 10km). Read the rest of this entry »

1. Pay attention multi-sport athletes who wish to compete in the Virginia Triathlon Series in 2009. There are new rules and terrific prizes for participants. TriathlonTrialLawyer Doug Landau won his age group in 2007, finished out of the money in 2008 behind two of his clients (!) and did not compete in enough races in 2006, despite having a prize- winning average. So it pays to know Read the rest of this entry »

Many cyclists, including Reston Virginia spine, brain and head injury lawyer Doug Landau have been chased by dogs while on training rides. While dog bites and attacks are not infrequent, and motor vehicles have been totaled by deer and cows, injuries caused by other animals are rare. Triathlon Trial Lawyer Landau even successfully represented a plaintiff whose Mercedes limousine was totalled by a deer outside of Winchester, Virginia !

The San Francisco Chronicle reported last week that a Monterey County jury has ordered the state to pay $8.6 million to a motorcyclist who was severely injured when he struck six wild boars on a state highway in 2003. The jury ruled Friday that the state was responsible for the cyclist’s head and other injuries because officials knew that wild pigs regularly crossing a highway were creating a dangerous situation, but they did nothing to address it.

The injured plaintiff, a 45-year-old former karate teacher and champion kickboxer, suffered serious injuries and is now confined to a wheelchair. The injured biker and his wife sued the state Department of Transportation (“DOT”) in Monterey County, California Superior Court. The defense attorneys for DOT argued that the state was not responsible for the actions of wild animals. The Defendant’s lawyers also alleged the now wheelchair-bound plaintiff was under the influence of Read the rest of this entry »

VTS Pre Season Update

The 2009 triathlon season is here and it is the 5 year anniversary of the VTS ! Set Up Events made some great additions to the series this year with new events at Lake Anna and in Christiansburg.
UPCOMING EVENTS:

3/28 – Manassas Park Festival of Races – 5K, 10K, 10 Miler. Staged out of Signal Hill Park, this is a new Northern Virginia running event we are timing.

4/4 – Smithfield Sprint – Pool Swim Sprint – 10AM Start – 175 Slots Left. A flat, fast course and post race BBQ await all athletes. Black hooded sweatshirts for all those fast enough to place. Come out to the first event of the 2009 VTS and check your
legs.

4/18-19 – Rumpass in Bumpass – International & Sprint Triathlons- 10AM Start -50% Full Read the rest of this entry »

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.

“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

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.

Running through a swamp behind a client’s home may not be most lawyers’ idea of a good time, but Doug Landau of ABRAMS LANAU, Ltd. is not your typical trial lawyer. While attending the VTLA Annual Convention in Williamsburg, Virginia, the Triathlon Trial Lawyer was able to find a local race to participate in after his duties as a volunteer earlier the same morning. Landau was a race volunteer for the Convention Fun Run.

The Herndon Reston injury and disability lawyer is pictured at the Jamestown High School track after the Colonial Road Runners Dismal Swamp 5km. The Colonial Runners do a splendid job and their events are challenging, held in unique locations and fun.