The Athlete's Lawyer

Bike crash and head injury lawyer Doug Landau always wears his helmet when riding his bicycle outdoors

Sports and recreational injury lawyer Doug Landau is proud to announce that the DC Trial Lawyers Foundation is giving away 200 bike helmets to D.C. kids on Thursday, June 10, 2010.  The event will take place at the Anne Beers Elementary School located at 3600 Alabama Ave SE Washington DC.  The hours are from 9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.  Stop by any time!  This event was rescheduled from an earlier date in June.  The DC Trial Lawyers Foundation is the charitable arm of the DC Trial Lawyers Association.

Attending the monthly educational meetings of the Trial Lawyers of DC enables Herndon Reston and Leesburg injury lawyer Doug Landau to keep abreast of the latest developments in personal injury law in the District of Columbia.  Landau is an active member of the DC and Virginia Trial Lawyers Associations in order to share notes and strategies with other experienced trial lawyers in the DC Metropolitan area.  Landau, who has represented injured bikers, children and athletes, also belongs to, teaches and writes for the American Association for Justice (“AAJ”), the national trial lawyer association for many of the same reasons.

Landau gets a prize at Broadlands, but no PR

Thinking he had ripped a new PR at today’s Sprint Triathlon, Broadlands bike injury lawyer Doug Landau went through the first loop in 15 minutes and cruised into the transition area at almost exactly 30 minutes.  However, the course was slightly shorter than the advertised 12 miles, so instead of 24 MPH average bike speed, the Herndon and Loudoun lawyer cycled 22.8 MPH.  Nevertheless, the Loudoun, Prince William and Fairfax bike crash injury lawyer finished in the top 10 out of some 270 multipart racers.  Starting in the 60th position, Landau’s goggles failed immediately during the well run 400 Meter outdoor pool swim.  The triathletes divided into “odds” and “evens” and started every 15 seconds according to their swim seed time.  Landau predicted 7:40 and managed 8:08.  The distance was a 400 meter “snake swim.”  In other words, swimmers moved into the next lane after each lap.  So, for those who swim in 25 yard pools, this was akin to almost 19 lengths.

College roommates team up to "tri" the Broadlands Sprint Triathlon in Loudoun County, Virginia

The Infinitive Broadlands Sprint Triathlon ends with a 5k run.  In the August running of the “Dog Days of Summer” triathlon along the same course, no one broke 20 minutes.  The run is an out & back through Broadlands trails, tunnels and sidewalks. There were water aid stations that caused Landau’s Newton racing flats to lose their sockliner !  The thin “floor” of the shoes quickly turned into “sponges,’ soaking up sweat and water thrown on his head.  But, using clear iodine and running barefoot helped the hardened triathlete – trial lawyer so that he had no blisters after the race.  In fact, Landau went for a swim to “cool down” after the race and cheering on other finishers, including Alexandria General District Court Judge !  “Oyez, Oyez, Order on the Course !”

Doug Landau checking out the transition area at the Broadlands Triathlon in Loudoun County, Virginia

Tomorrow is the Infinitive Sprint Triathlon in Loudoun County, Virginia.  This triathlon, which starts at Broadlands Outdoor Pool off of Village Drive in Broadlands Virginia with a pool swim, then heads out to Claiborne Parkway for the bike and on the Broadlands trails for the run. This is a great first timers event and a fun challenging course for those with experience.  Bike injury lawyer Doug Landau has done other races managed by Tri Performance at South Riding, Worldgate, Herndon and Loudoun County, and Brian and Alissa Crow do a marvelous job of creating and pulling off fun, safe fitness events.

Could this be the "Crow-mobile" for Coach Crow ?

Usually triathletes and endurance athletes take a day or two off before a competition.  Many long distance athletes “taper” before “the big event.”  However, for races under 90 minutes, triathlon trial lawyer Doug Landau will often train right up to and even after the race.  Swimming today helps “flush out” the waste byproducts from a hard week of work and training, and swimming after the race will reduce the post-competition soreness that often hinders older athletes’ resumption of training.  As an award-winning masters triathlete and road runner, Landau is careful not to “overdo it” in the days leading up to a race.  But, a little non- impact exercise the day before a short sprint race should not impair performance  or recuperation or lead to excessive post-race soreness.

TriPerformance Coach Crow at the Inifinitive Broadlands Triathlon packet pick up & bike safety inspection

Race Director and TriPerformance Coach Brian Crow runs a smooth race, which starts with a well-staffed pre race packet pick up.  Pre-Race Packet pick up, bicycle and helmet safety checks, and course tours and pre-race meetings all help triathletes and bikers avoid injury and crashes.  Broadlands, South Riding and Warrenton Sprint Triathlon prizewinner and cyclist Doug Landau of the ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. law firm in Herndon Virginia notes that there is a clear advantage to knowing the course.  “I can ride faster AND more safely on a course where I know the turns, hills, road conditions and transition area.  In over 25 years of multi-sport racing, I have seen too many cyclists and triathletes get hurt when they did not know when to turn, shift gears or slow down.”

A bike crash and still 3rd place overall !

[N.B. In the Broadlands Sprint Triathlon, a 16-year-old crashed, but managed to finish in 3rd place (see photo, left); another racer did an extra lap on the 2 loop course; and, another cyclist went off the course and may have received a penalty.]

Sunday’s race raises funds for the Infinitive Foundation, which was established to support programs focused on health and enhancing family life. Proceeds from the Infinitive Race Series will support local and US Military families. Infinitive Infinitive is a Northern Virginia based management consultancy that delivers Change Engineering expertise. Click for more information about Infinitive.

“Prep football coaches get an education on concussions” was the title of today’s excellent “Varsity Letter” high school sports column by Preston Williams.  High school football coaches were exposed to current theory and practice with concussions at Redskins Park.  Secondary school coaches from Virginia, Maryland and the District filed into a tent at Redskins Park on a recent Saturday morning for a seminar on concussions.  The coaches watched a presentation, questioned Dr. Peter Gonzalez, an assistant professor of sports medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk and watched a Redskins practice.

There are an estimated 43,000-67,000 concussions — really just a fancy word for injured brains — per year in high school football.  About 50 percent of concussions are suspected of going unreported by young athletes.  Football coaches, particularly those at schools without full-time certified athletic trainers — which in the Washington area includes Montgomery, Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties — are the first responders to injured players. So these coaches often either make, or help make, the decision about whether a player, including one who is possibly concussed, is fit to remain in a game or continue to practice.  The Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, determined that more than 40 percent of high school athletes who sustain concussions return to action too quickly.  Two high school football players in North Carolina died in 2008 from concussion-related injuries.

One coach wondered if players would be better served by being subjected to more hard hits in practice, because they would perhaps build up a tolerance and resistance to the shots that result in their brains colliding with their skulls. No, Gonzalez said tactfully. The fewer hits to the head, the better.  Other coaches had never heard of the ImPACT program, in which athletes take a 30-minute computer test that gauges their neurocognitive functions. That provides a baseline of information. The athletes are re-tested after a suspected head injury.  Howard, Fairfax and D.C. schools, among others in the area, use ImPACT.  Other coaches were unaware that athletes who sustain a concussion are two to four times more likely to sustain another, with 80 percent of those repeat concussions occurring within 10 days of the first one. A Time magazine article from 2009 cited a study that found from 2005 to 2008, 41 percent of concussed athletes, at 100 high schools nationwide, returned to play too soon, based on American Academy of Neurology guidelines.  “We can’t prevent this first concussion,” Gonzalez told the coaches. “What we can prevent is the sequella of that concussion, the second-impact issues, worsening or delaying recovery.”

Many bikers commuting on "Bike to Work Day" will go right past the Herndon Reston Sterling area Landau Law Shop

It’s free, it’s fun and it’s physical !  “Bike to Work Day” is in 3 weeks.  Join thousands of area commuters and Triathlon Trial Lawyer Doug Landau for a celebration of bicycling as a clean, fun and healthy way to get to work!  There rate 35 regional pit stops, with SWAG, mechanics and riders of all levels.  Try a ride into the city with experienced commuter convoys and meet your fellow cyclists at Freedom Plaza.  Washington Area Bicyclist Association and Commuter Connections invite you to try bicycling to work as an alternative to solo driving. Help the Washington region become a better place to ride, a cleaner environment and a healthier community.  Bike to Work Day is a FREE event and open to all area commuters.  The ABRAMS LANDAU sports injury lawyer has participated a number of times, and Doug Landau enjoys the camaraderie, mechanical check ups and the freebies.  There will be a raffle, prizes, food, drink and more at all pit stops throughout the region.  Free T-shirts will available for the first 8,500 registrants who are in attendance at the pit stop they registered for in advance.  Registration for Bike to Work Day 2010 is now open!
Click on the pit stop link and register for the pit stop rally you plan to attend.  Raffles will be held at each pit stop for prizes including commuter bags, bike locks, and bicycles.

USAT Executive Director Skip Gilbert at the National Duathlon Championships with Triathlon Trial Lawyer Doug Landau discussing athlete safety, bicycle laws and "rules of the road" for bikers, runners and race directors

Finding the news of the arrests of charity cyclists and triathletes “disturbing,” USAT Executive Director Skip Gilbert was finally able to meet with Doug Landau in Richmond after the National Duathlon Festival in Richmond.  Gilbert told the injured athletes lawyer that he would, “see what we can do to help.”

Landau noted that, “when Loudoun County authorities arrest the runners, they will have achieved the ‘Triathlon TriFecta’ !  First the “Speedo 6,” then the “MS-8.”  What will be next ?  Bringing the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Paddy Wagon to the Leesburg 10/20 km or LoCo Triathlon ?  Cuffing Potomac River Runners at the Twilight Festival if they do not come to a complete stop at a stop sign or stop light during their warm up and/or cool down ?” A lot of area athletes are upset, as are the police & prosecutors.  When NBC came out to the ABRAMS LANDAU law office by the Herndon Caboose (the 20 mile mark of the 50+ mile W&OD Trail from D.C. to Leesburg), the filming revealed that NOT A SINGLE CYCLIST knew that they could:

1. lose their driver’s license,
2. get points on their Division of MOTOR Vehicles (“DMV”) record,
3. be convicted of a moving violation, and
4. have their insurance rates adversely impacted.

Landau’s own polling of Reston Bike Club members, discussions with Winchester Wheelmen and Tidewaters bikers, yield similar results.  So Landau and Gilbert have been corresponding for months as the sports injury lawyer was advised to contact the USAT before “Round 3.”  In the interests of safety and consistency, it is hoped that a coherent policy, rules of the road and enforcement will be promulgated.

As one who enjoys running barefoot on the beach, and who listens to an iPod when running off the roads, sports injury lawyer Doug Landau was taken aback by the news reports of the death of a runner in Hilton Head, South Carolina.  Apparently the ipod jogger was running along the beach  with his iPod when a plane making an emergency landing hit him from behind, killing him instantly.

According to news reports, the 38-year-old father of two was on a business trip in Hilton Head Island, when a Lancair IV-P single-engine aircraft lost its propeller and was “basically gliding” Monday evening before hitting Jones, according to the coroner.  “There’s no noise,” said aviation expert Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). “So the jogger, with his ear buds in, and the plane without an engine, you’re basically a stealth aircraft. Who would expect to look up?”

The pilot and his passenger walked away from the crash landing near the Hilton Head Marriott Resort and Spa.  This jogger’s death is uncommon, but not unheard of: last year a Philadelphia jogger using an iPod died when a tree fell on her.  Hard to say whether volume control might have saved him, but it is worth thinking about.  One of the reasons Herndon Reston injury lawyer Doug Landau does not run on roads with cars or trucks with his iPod covering his ears is that he cannot hear motorized vehicles that are traveling behind him.  On the beach, turf fields, trails and track, there is less danger from getting injured by drivers you don’t hear coming, or so the ABRAMS LANDAU injured athletes lawyer thought…

There are TWO important parts to every Virginia case where a PLACE causes a runner’s, biker’s or walkers injuries.

1. First, the injured party must show that there is a defective or dangerous condition on the property that caused the harm, AND
2. Second, the property owner or operator must have had notice of the danger or defect.

Pictures can show a defect, but proving "notice" (how long the dangerous condition or defect existed) is more difficult

A photograph like the one shown, shows a broken and dangerous condition, but the picture does not give a lot of information about how long it has been in this condition.  Prior similar incidents, complaints BEFORE the date of the biker, runner or walker’s injury and physical evidence of how much time has elapsed are all helpful.  If a pothole has worn down and is no longer jagged, expert may be able to testify as to how long the condition has lasted.  If the danger or defect has been around a long time, then a Virginia Court will allow the personal injury case go to the jury on the issue of damages.  That’s why the ABRAMS LANDAU injury trial team advises clients that pictures are great, but evidence of notice must still be developed in order to succeed in court.  If you or someone you know has been injured while biking, running, walking, blading or while exercising due to some danger a company’s property, please e-mail or call us at ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. (703-796-9555) today, as there are important legal deadlines in these premises liability claims.

Recently, Ashburn and Herndon area injury lawyer Doug Landau has been contacted by injured bikers who already have a lawyer.  Some are dissatisfied with their current lawyer’s work. Others cannot reach their current attorney.  And still other cyclists are confused and do not understand the legal process or their present legal counsel’s instructions.

Herndon and Ashburn bike crash injury lawyer Doug Landau of ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. steers his bike with just 2 hands !

When A-V Rated attorney Doug Landau is contacted by a disabled biker or athlete or bike – car crash victim who is already represented by counsel, he and the ABRAMS LANDAU staff advise the caller to try to work things out with their present lawyer.  That lawyer presumably knows the case; has invested in the claim; and, will likely have a “lien” (an “IOU”) for attorney fees even if the case is taken over by another attorney or law firm.  Plus, switching counsel “mid-stream” sends a negative message to the insurance company.  It suggests that the client is impatient, may switch again, and that there will be dissonance on the plaintiff’s side of the case.  So, while the injury trial team at ABRAMS LANDAU wants to help everyone who calls, writes and e-mails, when there is already counsel retained, we decline representation unless the potential client has:

1. Genuinely tried to work things out with their original lawyer;
2. Settled up with their counsel, who may be owed money for costs and fees;
3. Put in writing that the lawyer is discharged; and
4. Have a copy of their file so that the next lawyer does not have to “reinvent the wheel” and duplicate expenses.

Cases the ABRAMS LANDAU injury trial team is currently working on that were started by other law firms include claims where the original lawyer has: retired, fallen ill, been disbarred, realized that they are not admitted to practice in the jurisdiction where the trial will be held and does not have the staff, resources or money to properly invest in the case.