Discovery (California)

[rosellavera]

ER retains a defense attorney for the sole purpose of defending an LC 132a claim. The issues are narrow and defense attorney would like to propound a limited number of interrogatories in lieu of a depo. Will Board allow it? I am on the defense side.

[LawAdvocate]

If both parties stipulate to same in lieu of a deposition, the WCAB will allow it.

However, you face the issue of an applicant attorney losing out on a deposition fee, which is risky, so I don't see them stipulating to losing money they need to keep the lights on in their practice.

[rosellavera]

Thank you. On the LC132a do we have to pay additional attorney fees to the AA?

[LawAdvocate]

Yes. It is a workers' compensation matter, therefore subject to a Labor Code 5701 fee.

[vampireinthenight]

Rose, what you are proposing is perfectly reasonable and makes total sense. However, the concept of reasonable, expeditiously efficient discovery will likely be lost in the mire of lame platitudes like, "Interrogatories aren't allowed in workers' comp!". Which, of course, isn't true but you will be doing something outside the box and that is usually not received well at the WCAB. The 5710 fee was never supposed to be a fee generator but, as LA points out, it has become one so you will have to deal with that mis-perception as well.

Here's an anecdote for you. I had flown an IW in from out of state for depo. He refused to answer questions about criminal convictions and the AA could not provide a reasonable objection to the questions. I got an order compelling the answers. I also asked to submit my questions via interrogatories since he was out of state and there were only a few questions remaining. Denied. Because: "Interrogatories aren't allowed in WC". So I had to schedule and fly him back out to answer questions he should have answered in the first place.

Good luck.