Attorney Brian Stutheit has managed over 175 unemployment appeals hearings for clients from every part of Colorado.  He represents employees and employers disputing eligibility for benefits, appeals of  determinations as to eligibility, disputes with the Division of Unemployment whether workers are employees or independent contractors, audits by the Division of Unemployment, and benefit overpayment/repayment claims. He has successfully represented clients in unemployment cases at the Colorado Court of Appeals.  Brian has often been interviewed as an authority on unemployment benefit law for local radio and television news outlets.

Almost all unemployment hearings are conducted by telephone, as conference calls.  This allows Stutheit & Gartland to represent clients located throughout Colorado, or even those currently located outside of Colorado.

We Represent Both Workers and Employers

Unemployment Appeal Attorney Fees

If you hire us as your Colorado unemployment lawyers, appeals are handled for a flat fee. For $1100 we take over the entire handling of your appeal and attend your appeal hearing with you, as your attorney. Unless a hearing lasts more than two hours, we do not charge any additional fees.  For your fee, we include as many client meetings as necessary, prepare filings with the Division of Unemployment Insurance, conduct prehearing investigation and witness preparation, obtain subpoenas to witnesses for testimony or for records, and act as your attorney and representative at your hearing. You will feel better with us on your side.  (Note: we do charge an hourly fee, $250, for every hearing which lasts longer than 2 hours. It is unusual for hearings to last longer.)

Some clients pay us only for an evaluation and consultation. We may help word and file their appeals, tell them what they should do to prepare for their hearing, help them to obtain subpoenas, walk them through what happens at hearings, help to prepare witnesses to testify, and give our advice what is good and bad in their case. The goal to prepare clients to represent themselves, without huge attorney fees. We give you as much time and attention as you need to be ready. The flat fee charge for this is $480. If you hire us after that preliminary consult to manage the entire appeal, including appearing as your attorney at a hearing, the $480 is credited against our $1100 fee, so you will owe an additional $620.

If you are an employer and are being audited, or are facing a claim that you should have paid unemployment taxes for your workers, we can help.  The time spent on audits is hard to predict, so we usually charge per hour for such issues.

Get legal representation at the first appeal level, the hearing officer stage. The appeal hearing before the hearing officer is your only chance to present all your arguments, witnesses and evidence. You won’t get another opportunity. Before you appeal an unemployment determination, or respond to the appeal from the other side, you should speak with a lawyer. What you say in your appeal must represent your best arguments under the law. Careless statements written in your appeal will hurt you at the hearing. A hearing officer may refuse to consider  facts or arguments, not provided before your hearing, for the first time at the hearing.  During the hearing, evidence and requirements of proof are more like being in court than you might expect.

We charge an hourly rate, $300 per hour, to prosecute or defend appeals from hearing officer decisions to the Industrial Claims Appeals Office. In considering whether to sustain the hearing officer’s appeal ruling, the panel limits its review to the evidence in the record from the appeal hearing with a hearing officer. The panel will not hear new evidence or arguments which could have been raised during the appeal before the hearing officer, but were not brought up. There is a very rare occasion when the panel will reconsider outside evidence, if a party appealing can prove fraud or perjury. But almost always, the panel will only look to see if the hearing officer disregarded the most important evidence, or failed to allow a party to fully present their case. We have successfully challenged hearing officer rulings, but successful challenges were almost always in cases where we also handled the hearing. Our presence at the hearing meant there was a good record for appeal.

Under some circumstances an employee who quits a job may still qualify for benefits. But never assume that you will qualify for unemployment if you quit. Talk to a lawyer before you quit.

Talk to an experienced Colorado unemployment attorney before you write a letter, text or email explaining what happened, and before you sign any termination papers prepared by your employer. These often backfire.  For example, one client wrote his supervisor to acknowledge he had made a mistake, but there were difficult circumstances.  To the hearing officer, this was an admission the employee  was at fault for his termination.

If you are an employer and do not want to pay the former employee benefits, make sure your documentation supports denial of benefits before you terminate. Many employers assume wrongly that just because they have the right to fire an employee, that means the employee will not get unemployment. The fired employee must have been “at fault” in order to be ineligible. Failure to meet a quota, or some performance standard, may not amount to “at fault” behavior.

Employers should all be familiar with Colorado Senate Bill 22-234, a 2022 law which governs employers who are terminating an employee. Colorado law now requires employers to provide the departing employee with a written notice of their termination that includes specific details. A template for the written notice is available on the Colorado Department of Labor website.

If you are a claimant and the employer wins the appeal, your benefits will be stopped and you will likely be asked to repay benefits you already received. You must know what facts are going to be important to the hearing officer during your appeal hearing. Facts prove or disprove the relevant law. An unemployment attorney’s best role is to keep you from guessing what facts are important in your own situation, and why they are important based on the law.

What is an Appeal? An appeal is a written disagreement of a Notice of Determination that was issued by the Division of Unemployment. The claimant or employer (interested party) listed on the Notice of Determination can submit a written appeal. When a written appeal is submitted, a request is being made for a hearing before a hearing officer. A Notice of Determination must have been issued in order to submit an appeal.

There are deadlines. Unemployment says, “We must receive your appeal within 20 calendar days of the date mailed at the top of the Notice of Determination. This includes Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays. If the 20th calendar day is a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the due date becomes the next business day. The postmark date of your appeal does not count.”

Call us for a brief conversation about your circumstances. Most times, we can tell you if we can be helpful to you. We do not charge for that, “how can we help you?”, conversation. Call us at 303-321-3017.