Rossa v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board

“O heavens! [is] this □ my true-begotten father.”

William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, act II, sc. 2.

The Majority concludes that a Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) has the authority to determine paternity within the context of a Workers’ Compensation Act (Act)1 benefits *359proceeding, and that paternity must be established by a preponderance of the evidence. Because I believe that paternity determinations must be rendered in the courts of common pleas, I must respectfully dissent.

At common law, a child born out of wedlock was subject to serious social and legal disabilities, with…