Colorado unemployment law – fraud penalty
Stutheit & Gartland,
Colorado unemployment lawyers
advises claimants that Colorado’s unemployment insurance statute just stiffened penalties for any person who receives an overpayment of unemployment because of his or her false representation or willful failure to disclose a material fact. The person shall be required to pay the total amount of the overpayment which shall be paid plus a sixty-five percent monetary penalty. In addition, the person may be denied benefits, when otherwise eligible, for a four-week period for each one-week period in which such the person filed claims for or received benefits to which he or she was not entitled.
This is a potentially crushing penalty which is going to hurt innocents. The collectors working for the Division of Unemployment Insurance routinely assume that overpayment results from fraud. This is a system which assumes your guilt. You must prove your innocence.
If you receive a repayment demand, you should consult a Colorado unemployment lawyer to do everything possible to resist the penalty. Set a hearing with a hearing officer. You should also consider contacting a bankruptcy law specialist about your chances to discharge your debt through bankruptcy. Do so before you there is a final administrative determination you have committed fraud.
Colorado unemployment law firm Stutheit & Gartland is looking for the right case to challenge this new law, and to clarify that it takes more than simply being overpaid to establish someone should be penalized for false representation or willful failure to disclose a material fact. If you have that case, we will do it pro bono.