Judge Erred in Striking All of Worker's Evidence as Sanction for Filing Flub

A divided Louisiana appellate court last week ruled that a workers’ compensation judge abused her discretion in striking all of an injured worker’s evidence as a sanction for his attorney’s procedural oversight. While the court said it was “inexcusable” for Juan Campos to fail to comply with a scheduling order to file a pretrial statement, the defendants hadn’t complied, either. In the absence of prejudice to the defendants or a history of flouting the trial judge’s directives, the Court of Appeals said it was an abuse of discretion to prohibit ...