What the panel ordered
Findings of Fact, Award and Order issued on March 24, 2021, rescinded; stipulations filed August 1, 2021, approved; award made in favor of applicant including further medical treatment.
Applicant petitioned for reconsideration of the Findings of Fact, Award and Order issued by the WCJ on March 24, 2021; WCJ recommended denial of the petition; parties later resolved the matter by stipulations.
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.
Permanent disability ratingApplicant prevailedneck · low back · hearing
The parties stipulated that the applicant's permanent partial disability increased to 29%, resolving the dispute over the extent of disability.
From the decision · page 1I. applicant, petitioned for reconsideration of the Findings of Fact, Award and Order issued by the workers' compensation administrative law judge (WCJ) in this matter on March 24, 2021. In that decision, the WCJ found that applicant's cumulative injury to his neck, low back and hearing arising out of and in the course of his employment as a police officer during a period ending October 3, 2010, by defendant, City of Stockton, caused new and further disability, that applicant's permanent partial disability has increased to 28% and that applicant requires further medical treatment to cure or relieve from the effects of his injury. Applicant contends in his Petition for Reconsideration that the WCJ erred in not finding that applicant's injury caused permanent partial disability of 30%. The WCJ issued a report in which he recommended that applicant's Petition for Reconsideration be denied. Subsequently, at our request the parties participated in a commissioners' settlement conference and agreed to resolve this matter by stipulations. The Stipulations, which were filed by the parties on August 1, 2021, provide that "[a]ll issues [in this matter] are hereby resolved, including the Petition to Reopen." The parties also stipulated that applicant's permanent partial disability has increased to 29%, all of the indemnity