Central Refrigerated Service Inc.; Great West South Sioux City Zzlatko Katic WORKERS’ COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARDSTATE OF CALIFORNIAZZLATKO KATIC, Applicant,vs.CENTRAL REFRIGERATED SERVICEINC.;GREAT WEST SOUTH SIOUX CITY, Defendant(s).Case No. ADJ1218087 (RIV 0084685)OPINION AND ORDER DENYING PETITION FOR REMOVAL Defendant has filed a timely, verified petition for removal, requesting that the appeals board rescind the Order dated March 15, 2010, wherein the workers’ compensation administrative law judge (WCJ) took this matter off calendar and ordered: “Parties are remanded to depose the PTP [primary treating physician] regarding the P&S [permanent and stationary] report deficiencies and make the record clear. PTP = Dr. Aflatoon.” Defendant contends that the WCJ does not have the power to order further development of the record prior to trial and that it has been irreparably harmed because “it will lose forever the right to trial on the present record.” We have not received an answer from applicant. Defendant has also filed a supplemental petition contending that if there is an award based upon the opinion of Dr. Aflatoon, the parties would be required to stay with him for any determinations following a petition to reopen1 and that going off calendar will allow applicant to change treating physicians.2 We accept the supplemental petition, but it does not affect our disposition. 1 Labor Code section 4067 specifically refers to “an agreed medical evaluator or a qualified medical evaluator selected by an unrepresented employee from a three-member panel.” Dr. Aflatoon is a treating physician.2 Defendant does not claim that applicant has done so. , Applicant, while employed as a truck driver on June 29, 2008, sustained an industrial injury to his neck and low back. He has been examined by an agreed medical evaluator (AME) on the issue of surgery, but that determination is not at issue here. At a mandatory settlement conference on March 15, 2010, the
