Are you tired of locking down evidence at the Mandatory Settlement Conference, proving your case at trial, and then being told to start over again by “developing the record?”

Again and again, California Workers’ Compensation defense attorneys witness judges helping applicants take a second or third shot at the target, often being told specifically what evidence needs to be added to the second trial to justify an award (or a bigger award).

Two recent Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board panel decisions seem to be starting the trend away from this practice.

In the cases of Bates v. Valley Vintners Wine Company (2011) and Elias v. Saticoy Lemon Association (2011) [Full disclosure: the former case was handled masterfully by Thomas J. Harbinson and Laura K. Lachman] the panel put a stop to this “develop the record” trend.

In Bates, after the MSC and trial, the Workers’ Compensation Judge disregarded defendant’s references to apportionment evidence and the rater’s use of an incorrect occupational group number for the applicant, finding him permanently and totally disabled based solely upon the Le Boeuf expert’s independent opinion without backup support.

Following defendant’s petition for reconsideration, the WCJ rescinded the Findings and Award, and instructed the parties to appear for further trial proceedings to “develop the record” to allow additional testimony from applicant’s vocational rehabilitation expert on the issues of “vocational feasibility, labor market survey, and/or necessity for vocational testing.”  Defendant responded by filing a petition for removal.

Citing Labor Code § 5502(e)(3), the WCAB held that discovery closes at the MSC.  Furthermore, once “the record is supported by substantial evidence from which a decision can properly be made, there is no basis to order development of the record.”  (Citing San Bernardino Community Hosp. v. Workers’ Comp. Appeals Bd.)

Similarly, in Elias, the WCJ vacated the submission of evidence and ordered development of the record on the issue of causation, also demanding the production of an additional opinion from the treating physician.

Defendant petitioned for reconsideration (which the WCAB held was improper, and instead ordered removal).  The WCAB again held that, absent a “showing that there was evidence applicant could not have discovered or obtained in the exercise of due diligence prior to the MSC,” Labor Code § 5502(e)(3) [the statute is erroneously cited as (d)(3) in the opinion] prohibits the admission of new evidence.

My favorite quote from the Elias opinion?  “In ordering parties to obtain [additional evidence] the WCJ is, in effect, doing applicant’s attorney’s job.”

Both WCJs were instructed to issue a decision on the present record.