Pesch v. Boddington Lumber Co.

OPINION

PICKARD, Judge.

1.The question in this appeal is whether a Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) may, in determining an award of attorney fees, consider adversely the fact that the worker’s counsel engaged in the permissible practice of communicating with a witness prior to trial. We hold that it depends on the particular facts of the case. In this case, the WCJ reduced the award of attorney fees from a straight hours-times-hourly-rate amount because counsel had an ex parte communication with the worker’s treating physician. Because the WCJ found the amount of hours expended by counsel to…