American Psychometric Consultants, Inc. v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board

In each of the three workers’ compensation cases before the court, the workers’ compensation judge (WCJ) granted a request by an employer/carrier for restitution of medical-legal fees paid by the employer/ carrier more than two years earlier to a medical lien claimant. In each case the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (Board) upheld the restitution order. We annul the orders.

After the several petitions for review of these orders were filed in this court, we asked the Board to specify the statutory or other authority upon which it relied in approving restitution in one of the cases, American Psychometric Consultants, Inc. v. Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (Hurtado), No. B081157 (APC). On September 1, 1994, the Board responded in detail concerning its statutory and other authority but also advised the court that it had somewhat changed its position on the restitution issue and wished us to remand the APC matter for further Board consideration.

Despite the Board’s change of position, the petitioner in APC and amici curiae California Society of Industrial Medicine and Surgery, FWHC Medical Group, Inc., and Veritas Medical Group, strongly urged the court to issue a…