Dr. Joshua Landa is not an attorney.

He is a spine surgeon with a background that most defense experts cannot match, and in this episode of Victim to Victory, that distinction matters. Dr. Landa completed a dual fellowship in both neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, which means he can address both the nerve and the structural components of a spinal injury without being boxed into a single specialty under cross-examination. He also completed a biomechanics research fellowship at NYU, where he spent a year physically measuring the forces that human spinal tissue can withstand before it fails. Lawrence LeBrocq, CEO and Managing Partner of Garces, Grabler & LeBrocq, interviews Dr. Landa about what that training looks like when it is applied inside a courtroom.

The conversation moves through the science of spinal injury in a way that is genuinely accessible. Dr. Landa explains why a person can suffer a serious brain injury without their head ever contacting a surface, how the biomechanics of a rear-end collision multiply the forces applied to cervical discs, and why a so-called preexisting condition is not the same thing as the cause of an injury. His suspension bridge analogy is direct and clear: a cracked bridge that carried thousands of cars without incident does not collapse because of the crack. It collapses because someone drove an 80,000-pound truck across it.

The episode also covers the surgical side of spine care in practical terms. Dr. Landa distinguishes between a discectomy and a fusion, explains why minimally invasive surgery is still a major procedure, and walks through the long-term concern of adjacent segment syndrome for patients facing spinal fusions. He is candid about artificial disc replacement, including both the advantages and the wear-related risks that do not always get discussed clearly.

The final stretch of the conversation addresses the attorney-doctor relationship directly. Both Dr. Landa and LeBrocq are clear that complete prior medical records are not optional. Missing records create credibility gaps that the defense will exploit, and credibility, as Dr. Landa puts it, is the most important thing of all.

"So you're not looking to diagnose an MRI, you're looking to diagnose a human being." — Dr. Joshua Landa

Timestamps

0:00 Introduction and Dr. Landa's background
1:05 Dual fellowship training in neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery at the Cleveland Clinic
2:33 Biomechanics research fellowship at NYU
3:18 How rear-end collisions create disc injuries
4:09 Closed head injuries without head contact: the coup and contrecoup mechanism
5:23 Communicating spine anatomy to juries without medical jargon
7:41 How defense cross-examination tactics fail against a complete clinical picture
9:30 The asymptomatic plaintiff and the preexisting condition argument
11:01 The suspension bridge analogy for explaining preexisting vulnerability
12:23 Connecting MRI findings to subjective patient complaints
13:54 What minimally invasive spine surgery actually involves
15:37 Discectomy versus fusion: when each procedure applies
17:13 Why spinal fusions require cages and screws
18:27 Adjacent segment syndrome and its implications for younger patients
20:24 What plaintiff attorneys need to provide for effective medical testimony
21:21 How Dr. Landa explains diagnoses and treatment options to patients
24:02 Outpatient versus in-hospital surgery: how that decision is made
25:19 Artificial disc replacement: advantages and long-term risks
26:56 Dr. Landa's 15 years of practice and how to reach Landa Spine

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