ABM INDUSTRIES, INC., Administered By ESIS, SANTIAGO IBARRA, WORKERS’ COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARDSTATE OF CALIFORNIASANTIAGO IBARRA, Applicant,vs.ABM INDUSTRIES, INC., Administered By ESIS, Defendant(s).Case No.: ADJ356153 (LAO 0887403)OPINION AND ORDER DISMISSING PETITION FOR RECONSIDERATION AND DENYING REMOVAL Defendant seeks reconsideration or removal following the issuance of the March 5, 2009 “Order and Opinion” by a workers’ compensation administrative law judge (WCJ). In that decision, the WCJ denied defendant’s petition seeking to compel applicant’s attendance at the March 3, 2009 medical evaluation scheduled with Shirzad Abrams, M.D. The WCJ also ordered that the parties were to obtain a replacement panel of Qualified Medical Evaluators (QMEs) for applicant’s evaluation with a QME. The underlying case involves an admitted injury to applicant’s right shoulder on February 6, 2008. In his Application for Adjudication of Claim, apparently filed in May 2008, applicant additionally alleged injury to his upper/mid/lower back, right hand, right arm, stomach and chest, and in the form of loss of sleep. Defendant questions whether the WCJ has any authority to limit, edit, censor or otherwise regulate the content of a party’s advocacy letter to a panel QME beyond that which is specifically referenced in Labor Code section 4062.3. Defendant further contends that to allow the WCJ such authority would intrude into a party’s right to counsel and into zealous advocacy except in the most egregious circumstances which are not present here. Defendant also contends that it has been denied due process in the WCJ’s having raised and decided that one sentence in its letter to Dr. Abrams was an unsubstantiated allegation highly prejudicial to applicant because defendant was not , provided an opportunity to present argument or evidence on that issue. Defendant argues that the sentence found offensive by the WCJ is legitimate argument and zealous advocacy, bu
Santiago Ibarra, vs. Abm Industries, Inc., Administered By Esis,
ABM Industries, Inc., administered by ESIS, appealed a decision by a workers' compensation administrative law judge (WCJ) that denied their petition to compel the applicant's attendance at a medical evaluation. The WCJ also ordered that the parties were to obtain a replacement panel of Qualified Medical Evaluators (QMEs) for the applicant's evaluation. The Appeals Board dismissed the defendant's Petition for Reconsideration and denied removal, finding that the WCJ's order was not a final order subject to reconsideration and that the defendant had not established any prejudice or irreparable harm that would justify granting removal.
- Filed On:
- Court: California, Los Angeles
- Case No. ADJ356153
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