Opinion ID: 1431841
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the employer's evidence, though competent, was without probative value

Text: A medical report may be competent in the sense that it was correctly admitted and yet lack the requisite quality of legally sufficient proof. An incompetent report is typically one which is admitted over objection to its hearsay character, where, for example, no cross-examination had been afforded by means of a deposition. In this case the employer's report is competent in the sense that it was rightly admitted; the problem is that it proves nothing. The medical evidence  read together with the hospital discharge report which says that two discs were operated on  demonstrates the physician's unexplained noncompliance with the AMA standards that allow a 5% disability rating for each disc. Since the employer's medical report gave the claimant an unexplained disability rating of 5% instead of 10% for both discs, it is not probative of any compensable impairment. [9]