Legal Question in Workers Comp in California

Generally yes, a Workers Comp judge will avoid having any discussion of the claim without both parties present. That said, a defense attorney can ask the judge if the conference was set on one or both of the ongoing claims, which does not entail a discussion of the merits of either claim. When a judge sees there are multiple claims but only one was set for hearing, the judge is correct in not wishing to hear the same evidence on the same worker more than once. So it was appropriate for the judge to tell the defense attorney to go get you to join in chambers regarding the two claims being united so the judge only has your matters on his/her calendar one time for all claims and only has to hear the evidence one time.