Unemployment appeal success story
Last week we won an unemployment benefits appeal for a woman who had two strikes against her.
She missed the first hearing with a hearing officer, and the employer won a ruling at the hearing in her absence that she quit voluntarily and should not receive benefits. Our client had not received notice of the hearing. She could not explain why she failed to receive notice, but signed an affidavit swearing she did not. It helped her credibility that she called us immediately upon learning there had been a hearing which she missed. That same day we asked for a new hearing. If she had delayed, it would have hurt her by showing she was inattentive. The hearing officer found good cause to allow a new hearing. He cited to her prompt action as evidence she was not just ignoring the process.
Our client quit her job after she received a pay reduction that severely affected her financial health. She could not afford to keep that job. The wage reduction was made because of poor performance. Quitting rather than face job discipline can disqualify a person from unemployment. However, at the new unemployment hearing we were able to coax her supervisor into saying that she was a hard worker with a good attitude. She was just not good enough at the job she was hired to do. The supervisor also said our client’s job was no longer secure once she got disciplined. Voila, benefits restored. Our client wanted to argue that she was a good employee who did her job as well as others. That would have been hard to prove, and it was unnecessary. That she tried hard was the key.