What the panel ordered
Petition for Reconsideration deniedp. 9
Defendant petitioned for reconsideration of WCJ's June 25, 2024 Findings and Award finding permanent total disability without apportionment
What was disputed, and how it came out
Each issue the panel decided, with the reasoning it gave. An outcome is what this panel did on this record — not a rule, and not a prediction.
Apportionment analyses of orthopedic AME and psychiatric QME failed to explain how and why preexisting conditions caused present permanent disability; reports did not constitute substantial evidence
From the decision · page 8Based on the foregoing, we are persuaded that neither the reporting of the orthopedic AME nor that of the psychiatric QME offers a substantial apportionment analysis.
The facts that decided it
What the panel treated as outcome-determinative, and which side it favoured.
AME Dr. Berman's apportionment analysis addressed causation of injury rather than causation of permanent disability and aggregated chronic back problems without identifying specific diagnoses or pathology