The Third Department determined that the penalty of reasonable attorney’s fees was appropriate where claimant’s counsel made several baseless requests for a change of venue:
We have repeatedly upheld the imposition of a penalty of reasonable counsel fees pursuant to Workers’ Compensation Law § 114—a (3) (ii) when, as here, the record contains substantial evidence that a venue request was made without a reasonable basis … . The record reflects that there was no legitimate basis for seeking the venue change and the Board had previously rejected several similarly-worded venue change requests by counsel. Under these circumstances, the Board did not exceed its authority in assessing a penalty against counsel based upon the filings of the request to change venue and the appeal to the Board without reasonable grounds (see Workers’ Compensation Law § 114-a [3] [ii]; see also Workers’ Compensation Law §§ 23, 142), and its decision will not be disturbed … . Matter of Estwick v Risk Mgt Planning, 2015 NY Slip Op 00686, 3rd Dept 1-29-15