Last December, the WCAB sitting en banc issued a Notice of Intention to suspend the privilege of Javier Jimenez to appear in any proceeding as a representative of any party before the Appeals Board, or any of its workers’ compensation administrative law judges (WCJs) for one hundred eighty (180) days. Notice was also given in the Notice of Intention that the Appeals Board intended to further order that any suspension continue until there is full compliance with the sanction orders described in the Notice of Intention.

The Notice claimed that over the last three years Mr. Javier Jimenez has been sanctioned numerous times for engaging in bad-faith actions or tactics that are frivolous or solely intended to cause unnecessary delay while acting for lien claimants as their Labor Code section 5700 agent before the WCAB. “His misconduct has resulted in the repeated imposition of sanctions against him and his clients and has injured other parties and wasted judicial resources.”

Sanctions have been imposed for knowingly proceeding to trial without necessary evidence, repeatedly presenting meritless arguments, making a false statement of material facts in a petition presented to the Appeals Board, impugning the integrity of the WCAB and WCJs, and other willful failures to comply with statutory and regulatory obligations.

Several examples were provided in the Notice. In one case he appeared as a hearing representative on behalf of lien claimant Universal Psychiatric Medical Center (UPMC). Hearing were scheduled in that case and the lien claimant failed to offer evidence in support of its lien claim. The WCJ jointly and severally ordered IMM and UPMC to pay a $2,500.00 sanction and to pay defendant’s reasonable attorney’s fees of $3,500.00.

In another illustrative case, Mr. Jimenez represented lien claimant Joyce Altman Interpreters. The WCJ jointly and severally sanctioned Mr. Jimenez and Altman $2,500.00 for failing to present evidence showing that the lien claims were not barred by the statute of limitations, and because they “failed to provide relevant and probative evidence to support the reasonableness and necessity of the services rendered and reasonableness of the charges,” that they “knew or should have known that their insistence on trial without relevant and probative evidence is frivolous,” and that their activities and those of their hearing representatives “were egregious and frivolous.”

Other examples were provided of a similar nature. However response to the Notice Of Intention and no request for further hearing was received from Mr. Jimenez. Therefore it was ordered that the privilege of Javier Jimenez to appear in any proceeding as a representative of any party before the Appeals Board or any of its workers’ compensation administrative law judges is hereby suspended for one hundred eighty (180) days