What the panel ordered
Petition for reconsideration granted; Findings and Award of January 29, 2026 rescinded; matter returned to trial level for further proceedings.
Petition for reconsideration of the Findings and Award issued on January 29, 2026, granted; the January 29, 2026 Findings and Award is rescinded and the matter is returned to the trial level for further proceedings.
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.
The WCJ erred in ordering lien claimant to take nothing on its lien because the admitted injury to the right knee was not properly brought to the WCJ's attention, and defendant failed to produce a denial letter for the claim, warranting reconsideration and further proceedings.
From the decision · page 1Lien claimant, Physical Rehabilitation Services, Inc., seeks reconsideration of the "Findings and Award" (F&A) issued on January 29, 2026, by the workers' compensation administrative law judge (WCJ). The WCJ found, in pertinent part, that lien claimant failed to prove that applicant sustained industrial injury and "awarded" lien claimant nothing on its lien claim.1
The facts that decided it
What the panel treated as outcome-determinative, and which side it favoured.
The Compromise and Release approved on June 27, 2016, expressly states injury admitted to right knee only with all other body parts denied.
Favours Applicant prevailed
This fact was not brought to the WCJ's attention, leading to an erroneous take nothing order on the lien claim.
Defendant produced no denial letter at trial for the lien claim.
Favours Applicant prevailed
Without a denial letter, the claim is presumptively accepted, supporting reconsideration.
The rules the panel named
Authorities as the decision cited them, with how this panel applied each one.
Labor Code sections 3202.5, 5705.5
A lien claimant holds the burden of proof to establish all elements necessary to establish its entitlement to payment for medical expenses.
Labor Code section 5909
A petition for reconsideration is deemed denied unless acted upon within 60 days from the date a trial judge transmits a case to the appeals board.
The Appeals Board must act on a petition for reconsideration within 60 days of transmission of the case to the Appeals Board.
From the decision · page 2Former Labor Code2 section 5909 provided that a petition for reconsideration was deemed denied unless the Appeals Board acted on the petition within 60 days from the date of filing. (§ 5909.) Effective July 2, 2024, section 5909 was amended to state in relevant part that:
What proof carried it
The evidence the panel weighed, by kind.
Defendant failed to produce a denial letter for the lien claim at trial.
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About this page
- A published decision of the California Workers' Compensation Appeals Board, taken apart by what it turned on. The Board publishes the decision itself; this page adds the extraction and quotes the passage behind every claim.
- The injured worker is not named here, and the case caption is not printed. Physicians appear as the decision names them, because a medical opinion is an act in a public proceeding.
- Issues, outcomes and weights were extracted by AI and released only where the source passage checked. Read the official decision before relying on anything here. Not legal advice.
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