What the panel ordered
Vacated prior Opinion and Order Granting Petition for Reconsideration; dismissed applicant's Petition for Removal or Reconsideration in the Alternative.
Petition for Removal or Reconsideration in the Alternative filed by applicant after WCJ's pre-trial conference order; WCJ recommended denial of removal; WCAB reviewed and dismissed petition as interlocutory orders were not final.
What was disputed, and how it came out
Each issue the panel decided, with the reasoning it gave. An outcome is what this panel did on this record — not a rule, and not a prediction.
The petition was dismissed because the WCJ's pre-trial conference orders were interlocutory and not final orders, thus not subject to reconsideration.
From the decision · page 445 [43 Cal.Comp.Cases 661]) or determines a "threshold" issue that is fundamental to the claim for benefits. (Maranian v. Workers' Comp. Appeals Bd. (2000) 81 Cal.App.4th 1068, 1070, 1075 [65 Cal.Comp.Cases 650].) Interlocutory procedural or evidentiary decisions, entered in the midst of the workers' compensation proceedings, are not considered "final" orders. (Id. at p. 1075 ["interim orders, which do not decide a threshold issue, such as intermediate procedural or evidentiary decisions, are not `final' "]; Rymer, supra, at p. 1180 ["[t]he term [`final'] does not include intermediate procedural orders or discovery orders"]; Kramer, supra, at p. 45 ["[t]he term [`final'] does not include intermediate procedural orders"].) Such interlocutory decisions include, but are not limited to, pre-trial orders regarding evidence, discovery, trial setting, venue, or similar issues. As relevant here, the WCJ issued two interlocutory orders: (1) Setting the matter for trial; and (2) Staying medical-legal discovery, except as to chiropractic, pending the outcome of the trial.