The Athlete's Lawyer

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.

DCRRC President, frequent road racer and genuinely nice guy Bob Platt reminded me that this Sunday is the 19th annual Reston 10 miler, 5K & Fun Run. The races start Sunday, March 15, 2009 on South Lakes Drive in front of South Lakes High School. Race time is 8 AM for 10 Miler and 8:05 for the 5km.

Both events finish at South Lakes High School on a certified course. Run on paved roads with gently rolling hills, the course covers some of the same roads as the wildly popular Reston Triathlon bike ride that sells out immediately each September. Sanctioned by USATF and the Potomac Valley Athletic Association, you can get a map of 10M Course online. NEW THIS YEAR: Runners will receive a technical T-shirt.

After a bike crash with a car, truck or dog, it may take time for the injuries to the cyclist to reveal themselves and then heal. However, once a bike frame is bent, it generally stays bent. So, for ABRAMS LANDAU clients who have been injured in bike crashes and other bicycle accidents, TheAthletesLawyer often will guide them on how to get their bike and other property repaired or replaced. This is known as the “property damage” or “PD” claim. This can be settled before and separately from the “bodily injury” or “BI” claim.

Both claims have time limits, and there may be limits to the amount of insurance the Defendant driver or homeowner may carry. However, many of the TriathlonTrialLawyer’s clients who ride regularly seek to get their bicycles fixed soon after a crash or other accident. In some cases, the property damage claim to have the bike fixed or repaired may be settled and paid years before the personal injury case is settled or tried in court.

Daylight Savings time means it’s lighter later in the morning. For “early bird” exercisers, that means that you should be wearing reflective, bright colored clothing so that you can be seen. You have seen me in my orange, yellow and other brightly colored garb. I practice what I preach.

I also try to wear my iPod when running on the track, turf field or spin class – NOT near the heavy traffic on the roads of Fairfax County and Loudoun County. Some Northern Virginia drivers seem to have little patience or courtesy when it comes to those of us who try to stay healthy through regular exercise. The DC Metro area roads and highways require extra vigilance on the part of runners, walkers, bikers, roller bladers, skate boarders, joggers, skaters, and wheelchair athletes.

Make sure that you see and can be seen. Look, listen and use all of your senses to avoid an accident and injury. In most every crash between a car or truck and a jogger or cyclist, the motor vehicle “wins.” Don’t lose valuable training time, your good health or time from your work and loved ones. Stay alert, dress so you can be seen, cross intersections carefully, use the cross walks and be aware. We want to see you on the trails, bike paths, roadways and races, NOT in our waiting room !