Attorney Penalized for Making a Baseless Request for a Change of Venue

The Third Department upheld the Board’s determination that counsel should be penalized for making a baseless request for a change of venue (closer to the attorney’s office):

Workers’ Compensation Law § 114-a (3) (ii) provides that “[i]f the [B]oard . . . determines that the proceedings in respect of [a claim for compensation], including any appeals, have been instituted or continued without reasonable ground[,] . . . reasonable attorneys’ fees shall be assessed against an attorney . . . who has instituted or continued proceedings without reasonable grounds.”  We will not disturb the Board’s imposition of a penalty for a violation of that statute so long as the determination is supported by substantial evidence … .  The Board considers a request for change of venue, which is a procedural motion, to constitute a proceeding for purposes of the statute.  Counsel was previously warned that what she cited as a “Board Rule” was actually a provision of a private legal treatise, that it did not accurately reflect the law or Board policy on venue, and that any further change of venue request filed based on that reasoning and citation “will be deemed a proceeding instituted without reasonable grounds and subject to the imposition of penalties under” the statute. Matter of Banton…, 516574, 3rd Dept 12-19-13