ALL PAYMENT SERVICES; AIG, LANCE TURNER, WORKERS’ COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARDSTATE OF CALIFORNIALANCE TURNER, Applicant,vs.ALL PAYMENT SERVICES; AIG, Defendant(s).Case No. ADJ542950 (VNO 0401460)OPINION AND ORDER DENYING PETITION FOR REMOVAL Applicant has filed two petitions for removal. In the first he requests that the appeals board amend the Order dated April 6, 2009, wherein the workers’ compensation administrative law judge (WCJ) ordered this matter continued to another mandatory settlement conference (MSC) on May 4, 2009. Applicant contends that the WCJ should have closed discovery at the MSC on April 6, 2009, and set the case for trial. Applicant also seeks a protective order “limiting defendant’s abusive, oppressive and burdensome discovery efforts.” Defendant has filed an answer. For the reasons set forth by the WCJ in his Report and Recommendation on Petition for Removal dated April 14, 2009, which we adopt and incorporate herein, we deny the petition. In his second petition, applicant is aggrieved by the WCJ’s taking the May 4, 2009, MSC off calendar after the filing of his first petition. Applicant contends that “‘off calendar status’ allows defendant untrammeled opportunity to conduct whatever discovery defendant had failed to do heretofore” and that it “further delays the adjudication of Applicant’s rights to receive retroactive and prospective monetary benefits and much needed and long delayed medical treatment benefits including surgery.” We have not received an answer to this petition from defendant. For the reasons set forth by the WCJ in his Report and Recommendation on Petition for , Removal dated April 28, 2009, which we adopt and incorporate herein, we deny the petition. However, because a significant dispute about discovery appears to have arisen after the last MSC, we recommend that the WCJ” set this matter for a status conference in order to review defendant’s discovery plan and any di
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