Court: WCAB Has Duty to Flesh Out Witness Statements When Workers Can't Speak

The Workers' Compensation Appeals Board had a duty to develop the record and ensure that qualified medical evaluators received witness statements regarding a worker before denying a petition for reconsideration, a California appellate court ruled. Because a workers' compensation judge said the employer's testimony about what Teofilo Aparicio was doing before he suffered a stroke was unclear, and the QME had not received witness statements that they said were necessary to determine causation, the 2nd District Court of Appeal said the WCAB's decision was not supported by substan...