What the panel ordered
The WCJ's Findings, Award and Order of May 23, 2023 is rescinded and the matter is returned for further proceedings consistent with the opinion.
Applicant sought reconsideration of the WCJ's Findings, Award and Order of May 23, 2023, which found 24% permanent disability after apportionment; the WCAB granted reconsideration and rescinded the WCJ decision to allow admission of earlier medical reports for reanalysis of apportionment.
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 WCAB found that the medical evidence supporting the apportionment was conclusory and not substantial medical evidence, requiring reconsideration and further evidentiary development.
From the decision · page 1Applicant seeks reconsideration of a workers' compensation administrative law judge's (WCJ) Findings, Award and Order of May 23, 2023, wherein it was found that, while employed on August 30, 2016 as a laborer, applicant sustained admitted injury to his dominant right hand and fingers causing permanent disability of 24% after apportionment. In finding permanent disability of 24%, the WCJ followed the apportionment findings of agreed medical evaluator (AME) orthopedic hand specialist Leonard Gordon, M.D., who opined that 60 percent of applicant's permanent disability was due to the industrial injury, and 40 percent was due to non- industrial factors. The WCJ also rejected vocational evidence offered to rebut the permanent impairment rating garnered from the AME's medical evaluation.