None Daniel Escamilla WORKERS’ COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARDSTATE OF CALIFORNIAIN RE: DANIEL ESCAMILLA, Respondent.Misc. No. 254OPINION AND ORDERS SUSPENDING DANIEL ESCAMILLA’S PRIVILEGE TO APPEAR BEFORE THE WORKERS’ COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARD (EN BANC)I.INTRODUCTION On September 21, 2011, we issued a Notice of Hearing (NOH) (In Re Escamilla (2011) 76 Cal.Comp.Cases 944 [Appeals Board en banc]) initiating proceedings pursuant to Labor Code section 49071 to suspend or remove Daniel Escamilla’s privilege to appear before the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) as a nonattomey hearing representative. Section 4907 confers the Appeals Board with the authority to remove, deny or suspend the “privilege of any person, except attorneys admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the state, to appear in any proceeding as a representative of any party before the appeals board, or any of its workers’ compensation administrative law judges” on the showing of good cause after a hearing.2 The NOH cites 11 cases in which sanctions were imposed on Mr. Escamilla for bad faith and/or 1 All statutory references are to the Labor Code unless otherwise specified.2 When this proceeding was initiated, section 4907 read “The privilege of any person, including attorneys admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the state to appear in any proceeding as a representative of any party before the appeals board, or any of its referees, may, after a hearing, be removed, denied or suspended by the appeals board for a violation of this chapter or for other good cause.” During the pendency of this proceeding, section 4907 was amended and now excludes from its scope attorneys admitted to the State Bar, substitutes the current “workers’ compensation administrative law judges” title for the antiquated “referees,” and specifies that the privilege to appear before the WCAB may be removed for violation of the Rules of the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board, or the Rules of the
