Isidoro A. Lucena

Great States Insurance Company was sanctioned $100 plus reasonable attorney fees for willfully filing a petition for dismissal unsupported by the medical record, causing applicant's counsel to incur expense responding. Defendant filed a timely but unverified petition for reconsideration, attaching a verification that it failed to sign. The WCJ's Report expressly noted the lack of verification and recommended dismissal unless the carrier verified the document within a reasonable time, but defendant never submitted a verification. The Board initially granted reconsideration to study the issues, then held that an unverified petition under Labor Code section 5902 will ordinarily be dismissed where petitioner had notice of the defect and neither cured it nor offered a compelling reason. The Board vacated its order granting reconsideration and dismissed the petition.