Morgan, Beauzay, Hammer, Ezgar, Bledsoe & Rucka v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board

Opinion

KANE, J.

Petitioner, a law firm, seeks review of an order of the board denying its petition for reconsideration of that portion of an award allowing $2,250 for legal services rendered to its client, a claimant for workers’ compensation benefits.

Petitioner represented Harry Schneiderman, a claimant who allegedly sustained injury to his heart arising out of and occurring in the course of his employment as an automobile parts man by respondent Paul Swanson Ford, and secured a recovery for him consisting of four months of temporary total disability, permanent disability of 78 percent amounting to $31,167.50 and thereafter a life pension of $29.08 per week, continued medical treatment, reimbursement of self-procured medical treatment, medical-legal costs, and attorney’s fees. Petitioner also successfully defended a petition for reconsideration by the carrier. The claim was disputed from the beginning, and respondents employer and carrier refused to provide any benefits until the award had become final.

Petitioner contends that the board’s order is unreasonable, unsupported by substantial evidence, in excess of its own jurisdiction, and in contradiction to its New Guidelines In Fixing Attorneys’ Fees

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which became effective September 11, 1975, and which are contained in The Policy and Procedural Manual of the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board under Index Number 6.8.4. We agree that the award, measured by the board’s own guidelines, is unreasonable, and that the board abused its discretion in permitting its workers’ compensation judge to employ standards not in conformance with the board’s own published guidelines.

Rule 10775, Rules of Practice and Procedure, sets forth the factors which are to be considered by the workers’ compensation judges in establishing a reasonable attorneys’ fee and requires the judges to make reference to guidelines in the Policy and Procedural Manual.

In promulgating its new guidelines, the board recognized that valuable services are rendered to applicants by competent attorneys and that fees must be sufficient to encourage competent attorneys to participate in this field of practice. (See