Adjudication

[Sonja117]

We had an employee leave in November after an emotional outburst that was instigated by another employee. She has always been bombastic and this situation was no different. She was well cared for by us, but never gave as much as she took.

We appealed her unemployment benefits to the point of adjutication. We had the adjudication hearing.

She chose to submit client protected information in an attempt to prove harrassment. She has been building a case to walk out and collect benefits for quite some time (July of 2011). In her testimony, she purjered as well as fabricated many of her statements. Don't get me wrong, she had some of the facts right, but she fabricated as well. Her documents were stolen from the company.

She entered all of it into evidence. The judge allowed her to do so. She was able to fabricate and purjer, and we were not permitted to refute any of it. We were not permitted to enter any evidence on our behalf. Her goal was to claim hostile work environment. She created said environment.

However, it seems as though the judge was not impartial. Anytime we attempted to refute any of the false information, we were told that it is inadmissable. Anytime we went to question the other party, we could not insinuate in any way that she was not being truthful. We were not allowed to question her in any way that might expose the truth.

I guess my question is: Is this legal? I know I have the right to an appeal, but those usually don't work too well... Thoughts?

 

[swalsh411]

You are making this out to be more complicated then it really is. If otherwise financially eligible and available to work, there are only two reasons a claimant will be denied unemployment:

1. They left the job without good cause
2. They were fired for disqualifying misconduct.

Which one of these do you believe applies?

If the "evidence" she was submitting had nothing to do with her eligibility for benefits then I'm not surprised you were not allowed to refute it because it was irrelevant to begin with.

 

[Sonja117]

Left without cause.

 

[swalsh411]

Is she claiming she was in fact fired or that she quit but had good reason to quit?

 

[davidmcbeth3]

if you did not object to the documents being admitted then your objection is waved.

If you did object, the judge ruled and that's that as far as his "courtroom" goes.

Worried about sensitive documents? To late. They are public record now & I doubt you have any legal recourse over them.

Sound like she won and presented a good case and/or you were unprepared.

 

[commentator]

The documents presented in an unemployment hearing are NOT public record. All information regarding a person's claim, appeals, and decisions and the materials submitted therein will be given to either of the involved parties, the separating employer or the claimant, no one else. Quit worrying about that.

However, my question is, have you had two appeals, or was the "adjudication" just the first or initial decision? The first or initial decision is usually made by a person called an ajudicator. This is sometimes done with a "fact finding" hearing at which both parties are present. Because you keep using the word "adjudication" and adjudicator" it leads me to believe that you have only had the initial decision, which went in the client's favor and you are entitled to an appeal within 15 days and can request an in-person or telephone hearing.

If this is the case, you definitely need to do the appeal. Submit your request for appeal IMMEDIATELY, as it must be in in a timely manner or there is no appeal, regardless of situation. You do not need to present your case during this request for appeal. Just say, "We wish to appeal this decision" You'd be presenting your information during the hearing.

Come back and tell me where you are on this. If this was your second hearing, you were heard by an appeals referee, this person may or may not have been a "judge" some states call them this, require a bit more credentialling, some don't. But if it was your official second appeals hearing, you now only have left an appeal to the board of review in your state, and it will be a request for a review, not another hearing with parties present. They will review the second hearing (which was all taped and transcribed) and will determine if unemployment law was followed in this hearing.

You must and it does not sound as though you did, decide definitely if the person voluntarily quit or you terminated her. If she voluntarily quit, then she has the burden of proof to show that she had a very good job related reason to quit. "Hostile work environment" does not pack any weight at all in an unemployment situation, though it is a term people tend to throw around a lot. But if she can show that she was being singled out for mistreatment, that would be significant to her case, might cause them to rule that she had a good reason to quit. There's nothing wrong with her having built a case to quit and draw, if you were giving her the ammunition to do so, that was your fault. Any internal paperwork that she was given copies of, was asked to sign, or that shows this pattern of harrassment she is trying to establish is relevant.

Not having been there, and not having heard the hearing, I can't say whether "this was legal" or not. But a lot depends on just what and how it was presented. Of course you were not allowed to question her in such a way as to expose the truth i nher lies. You would never be allowed to browbeat the other party in the hearing, you're not Perry Mason questioning a suspect. You would never have been allowed to present evidence out of turn or to object or attempt to refute when the other party was presenting material.

The goal of the hearing officer is to keep the situation moving in an orderly fashion.If there was sufficient evidence that the person had a valid reason to quit the job, if she had significant evidence that she was being mistreated and there was a definite pattern of harrassment against her such that she was being harrassed into quitting, that would make a very good case for her side.

In these types of hearings, it is generally accepted that either or both of the parties may be lying. The hearing officer is to go with the "most believable" of the two presentations. Thus "perjury" is rarely an issue, though the parties are under oath.

But in any case, as someone pointed out, the situation is very different from a courtroom and jury case. There are certain things that usually cause a person to get approved, certain things that will lead to denial of the claim, and if the smart employer has made a case for any actions they take, h as documented all situations and has not given the employee good cause to want to quit the job, it usually works out fairly.