County Of Fresno; Permissibly Self-Insured, Administered by York Insurance Services Group John Swenning, Jr. WORKERS’ COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARDSTATE OF CALIFORNIAJOHN SWENNING, JR., Applicant,vs.COUNTY OF FRESNO; Permissibly Self-Insured, Administered by YORK INSURANCE SERVICES GROUP, Defendants.Case No. ADJ6974901OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING PETITION FOR REMOVAL AND ORDER TO FILE CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT Defendant has filed a timely Petition for Removal, requesting that the Appeals Board reverse the Order Denying Defendant’s Petition for and Discovery Motion of the County of Fresno Pursuant to Evidence Code §1043 et seq. (hereinafter, discovery motion), wherein the workers’ compensation administrative law judge (WCJ) denied defendant’s motion to produce applicant’s personnel file on the ground that it was protected by a confidentiality agreement between applicant and the County of Fresno. Defendant contends that it will not be able to prove affirmative defenses “including, but not limited to, fraud,” without the personnel file. Applicant has filed an answer. Applicant, while employed by the County of Fresno as a district attorney’s investigator on March 24, 2009, claims to have sustained an industrial injury to his lumbar spine and both knees. On September 28, 2010, David H. Parker of Parker, Kern, Nard & Wenzel, representing the County of Fresno, administered by York Insurance Services Group, Inc., filed the discovery motion at issue herein. The motion was opposed by the Fresno County Counsel, representing the Fresno County District Attorney, on various grounds, not including the existence of a confidentiality agreement. It was also opposed by applicant, who likewise did not mention the existence of a confidentiality agreement. However, it appears that the existence of the confidentiality agreement was disclosed to the WCJ at a hearing on March 24, 2011, because the WCJ mentions it in his Order filed April 4, 2011. , On June 22
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