Rating By Analogy In Workers’ Compensation Case.

An agreed medical examiner recommended characterizing a workers injury: “by analogy, it would be similar to an individual with a limp and arthritis.” The Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board found a doctor could rate an impairment by analogy to other impairments which are rated in the guide used in workers’ compensation matters. The employer, a city, appealed, contending a rating of impairment by analogy to a different condition is impermissible. The appellate court affirmed the decision of the Board, noting the worker’s condition is manifested only by his subjective experience of pain which calls for the physician’s exercise of clinical judgment to assess the impairment most accurately. (City of Sacramento v. Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (Cal. App. Third Dist.; January 15, 2014) 222 Cal.App.4th 1360, [167 Cal.Rptr.3d 1].)