What the panel ordered
Defendant's Petition for Reconsideration of the WCJ's Findings of Fact, Order and Opinion on Decision dated April 5, 2021, is denied.
Defendant Porterville Unified School District filed a timely Petition for Removal of the WCJ's Findings and Order dated April 5, 2021, challenging the validity of the qualified medical evaluation panel process and the Notices of Permanent Disability.
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 April 1, 2020 Notice of Permanent Disability failed to specifically delineate which findings of Dr. Durazo were disputed, thus failing to constitute a valid objection under Labor Code 4061 to trigger the QME panel process.
From the decision · page 5of permanent impairment and limitations or the need for future medical care, as set forth on Labor Code § 4061, versus objections to a medical determination made by the treating physician concerning any medical issues not covered by Labor Code § 4060 or 4061, and not subject to Labor Code § 4610. While both roads lead to an unrepresented employee in propia persona obtaining a comprehensive evaluation by the procedure provided in Labor Code § 4062.1, the basis of the objection is relevant so that the parties, as well as the selected panel QME, have a clear indication as to what issues are contested and therefore being submitted for the selected and/or designated QME to evaluate. Clarity as to the specific disputed issue, or issues, are of particularly more significance when an unpresented employee is maneuvering through the comprehensive medical legal dispute process on his or her own. Here, Petitioner's April 1, 2020, Notice of Permanent Disability failed to specifically delineate which of Dr. Durazo's findings or results Petitioner disagreed with.