We represent both employers and employees in unemployment matters, including appeals and hearings.
Do you need a lawyer? In this evidentiary hearing, your attorney can submit relevant evidence, present fact witness testimony, and conduct cross-examinations. Hearings are conducted by a hearing officer via telephone conferencing. Hearing officers are really administrative law judges. Having an experienced unemployment appeals lawyer represent you can increase your chances of obtaining the outcome you desire. Having an attorney represent you at the hearing can help you keep your composure and focus on your goal of obtaining your unemployment benefits, or resisting a benefits claim. During the hearing, evidence and requirements of proof are similar to being in court before a judge.
But not everyone needs an attorney. We will talk with you at no charge in order to give you honest advice if and how your odds of success could change, if you hire us. Give us a call.
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.
“I say this kindly, I hope I never have to use you again! But if I ever do need an attorney for unemployment , I know exactly who to call and who to send people to. You were wonderful throughout this whole process, answering all of our questions and coaching us before the hearing.” Z.H., an employer, June 2026.
See other recent real client Google reviews. Search Stutheit & Gartland, P.C.
Almost all unemployment hearings are conducted by telephone, as conference calls. This allows Stutheit & Gartland to represent clients located throughout Colorado, or even outside of Colorado.
Unemployment Appeal Attorney Fees
If you hire us as your Colorado unemployment lawyers, appeals are handled for a flat fee. For $1,100 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 prehearing conversations as necessary to get you ready, file new exhibits and subpoena requests with the Division of Unemployment Insurance, conduct prehearing investigation and witness testimony preparation, and act as your attorney and representative at your hearing. (*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 coaching 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 successfully represent themselves at hearing, without huge attorney fees. The flat fee charge for this is $480. If you hire us after that coaching consult to manage the entire appeal, including appearing as your attorney at a hearing, the $480 is credited against our $1,100 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. It is advisable to speak with a lawyer before you appeal an unemployment determination, or respond to the appeal from the other side. Your appeal must present 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. .
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 the employee was facing difficult personal 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 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, and why those facts are important based on the law.
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. We do not charge for that, “how can we help you?”, conversation. Call us at 303-321-3017.