What the panel ordered
Denial of New Age Imaging, Inc.'s petition for costs affirmed; lien reinstated due to no formal dismissal; New Age must pay lien activation fee if lien pursued
Petition for Reconsideration granted by the Appeals Board to study factual and legal issues; case assigned en banc for uniformity of decision; WCJ denied petition for costs filed by New Age Imaging, Inc.
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 Appeals Board held that medical-legal expenses cannot be sought through a petition for costs under section 5811 because there is a separate statutory scheme for medical-legal expenses and allowing such petitions would circumvent the lien activation fee requirement.
From the decision · page 122 We hold: (1) a claim for medical-legal expenses may not be filed as a petition for costs under
The facts that decided it
What the panel treated as outcome-determinative, and which side it favoured.
New Age Imaging, Inc. filed a medical-legal lien for copying and related expenses before January 1, 2013, and later withdrew the lien and filed a petition for costs to avoid paying the lien activation fee.