I think it is no secret that lien claimants and their representatives are not all on Santa’s “nice” list.  Some of them engage in what I would call, in an act of unfathomable generosity, ethically questionable tactics.

Often enough, sanctions are not awarded against them (although there are exceptions), and even then not with enough frequency to make the tactics unprofitable.

But then, there are cases like those of one hearing representative, who shall remain nameless.

In this en banc opinion, the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board ordered a hearing on whether or not this hearing representative should be stripped of the privilege of appearing before the Board.  The WCAB provided a long list of the hearing representatives’ bad faith tactics, including the filing of frivolous petitions, failing to appear, making false statements of fact, and others.  This sanctionable conduct goes back as far as 2003.

Just as an aside, the fact that the first actual sanction was imposed in 2003 suggests to me that there may be other actions which were never sanctioned, inflating the frequency and longevity of this history of conduct.

For eight years, this hearing representative was sanctioned again and again.  A hearing is ordered on this matter and hopefully there will be no more defendants harassed, shaken down, or bullied by this person.  Of course, this can only serve as a personal deterrent to him, taking his ability to do these things away, and somewhat of a scare tactic to others.

Overall, however, the Workers’ Compensation Judges and the WCAB seems reluctant to punish bad behavior on the part of lien representatives (or applicants’ attorneys), so if anything is ever to be done about the unethical amongst us, be sure to contribute to a record to help document who-did-what-wrong.