PA repayment of Unemployment

[DeniedInPA]

My girlfriend was fired for her previous employer for a OJI claim. She hired a subpar attorney to represent her in her wrongful termination/OJI claim case. The attorney was more interested in getting paid the helping her get what she deserved. After the case closed she made numerous requests for the Agreement letter between her and her former employer but the attorney always said they did not know where it was.
3 months after the close of the case she filed an unemployment claim only to be denied. 7 months after the close of the case she filed an unemployment claim again to receive 75% benefits and have the case worker state she didn't know why the first claim was denied. 4 months of receiving benefits she was notified her former employer was appealing the decision. Prior the the hearing she made another attempt to get a copy of the Agreement letter from her former attorney only to be told that he was no longer at the firm and the person answering the phone did not know if they still had a copy. SO she never received a copy of the Agreement. She tried to call and get an postponement of the hearing while she waited to get the Agreement only to be told by the referee that it was not needed.
During the hearing her former employer brought their copy of the Agreement in which it was stated that she would not seek any type of compensation from the employer to include further medical claims and unemployment benefits. When I asked her about that her response was that the attorney forced the Agreement down her throat saying if she did not sign it then she would never get all her medical bills payed. He would not let her read the agreement. Now the state has decided that she knowingly defrauded the state and wants all the unemployment payments back.
Does she have any recourse since she believed in her attorney and signed an Agreement that kept her from seeking what is rightfully hers? Anything she can do to decrease or stop the state from seeking a full refund of the payments?
Thanks

 

[commentator]

What happened in her supposed case with whoever she could have had a case with for wrongful termination and or termination while on medical leave is very much irrelevent to the unemployment insurance process. Having the agreement letter which she signed and was (I assume) given on termination would not be totally necessary to her filing for unemployment benefits. It was pretty bad she didn't manage to keep a copy of it somewhere herself, but it wasn't life and death she have it. Did she have any memory of what it said? What does she mean, the employer wouldn't let her see it? Does this mean in the hearing, or at the time she actually signed it?

Did she agree to resign? Had she been released to return to work at this point? Was it a worker's comp claim? Had it been settled? Did she sign anything saying she was resigning from the job? I don't quite see what went on, but it sounds like maybe a "quit or be fired" option and she chose to resign voluntarily. Anyhow, at what point was she released by her doctors as able to return to work? This would have been the first time she could file and would be able to draw any unemployment insurance.

So what happened was that (regardless of other lawsuits on-going or not) she filed once for unemployment and was denied. Why? What was the reason she was denied that first time? Then she re-filed seven months later. This would not have been a new claim, this would have been a re-opening of that same claim. At this time, she would have received something saying her benefits were approved initially, and she started getting checks. Later she must have gotten something saying the employer had protested the claim, and that there would be a hearing scheduled. For some reason she decided she could not do the hearing without the original agreement letter from her termination. She tried to postpone the hearing, and was told that the letter of agreement was not needed. It wasn't. They told her correctly.

Then in the hearing, the employer produced the original letter, which says she had agreed not to ask for additional medical bills or unemployment insurance. That agreement letter was worthless as far as keeping her from drawing unemployment benefits. It is not legal in any state to demand that an employee sign a paper saying they will not seek unemployment (unless you are paying them an amount in severance weekly that compensates, yada yada...very rare.) The employer just can't arrange things to where by their own agreement a person can't sign up for unemployment benefits or will not be approved for them. What they can do is protest that she is not out of work through no fault of her own, but by her own choice, (that she voluntarily quit) or that they terminated her for good misconduct cause.

What I bet they were stating and the reason she was declared ineligible for benefits was that when threatened, your girfriend agreed to voluntarily quit her job by her own choice. If they won this appeal hearing, proving she did indeed quit the job without good work related reason to quit, then she would be stopped from drawing, then the agency would say she was overpaid all the previous weeks she had been drawing. When she received the letter telling her she was overpaid, there was also a chance to re-appeal this decision to the "Board of Review" or something of that type. She has the option of doing this if it is still within the time frame for appeal.

Since she was approved and did get to draw benefits for a while, she did not "knowingly defraud" the state unless she provided them with bogus information when she filed the claim (saying that she was laid off due to lack of work or terminated while on medical leave) when in actuality she had signed papers agreeing she was resigning from her job. She can now insist that she did not want to quit her job, but it sounds like she actually did. That's what is going to make the difference, not whether she signed a paper or had a copy of it. She certainly can't do anything to her attorney for not getting her this letter, as a copy of this letter was not necessary and would not have gotten her approved if she'd had it.

When she received the notice that she is now overpaid $XXXX, this notice will also tell her she can request a waiver of this overpayment if she is in dire financial straits. Or she can call the overpayment unit (their number should be on the letter) and they should be able to tell her how to request a waiver of this overpayment. She will have to submit detailed financial information and they will determine if it is feasible to ask her to pay this money back. Since she is unemployed and may now have some medical bills, a waiver may be possible.

Even if she does not do this waiver request, it is possible the state will not pursue this overpayment vigorously, since it is not a fraud overpayment. But lately, with the state's trust funds beginning to be so depleted, they are getting a little more aggressive about collections. They can, if they want to, garnish her wages when she is re-employed. Sometimes the overpayments just stay on a person's records until they try to file again for unemployment or request some other type of assistance or licensure.

 

[DeniedInPA]

Basically she had an accident at her previous employer in which her knee was damaged causing 3 surgeries to repair. Once cleared to return to limited work her employer put her on light duties in the back of the store. While on light duty she slipped on a spill no one cleaned up and re-injured her knee. The Doctor refuse to release her to work and the company claimed she was faking the reinjury to avoid work. After the re-injury of the knee ( which was the 3rd surgery needed) the company refused to pay any more Workman's comp payment claiming she was a fraud. This lead to a Workman's Comp lawsuit which was settled out of court. The agreement was for the settlement to take place she had to resign from her job, make no more medical claims against the company and not seek future unemployment benefits. Her other choice was to refuse the settlement and try in the courtroom. Since her attorney was more interested in getting paid then helping her he pushed the settlement saying she had no chance in court. She signed the settlement agreement, resigned from her position and received her settlement check to stop the collection of all her medical bills. The attorney said he would send her a copy of the settlement agreement but never did.
The whole basis of the hearing was her former employer claiming she resigned and signed an agreement not to seek any further compensation from them including unemployment. In the hearing the former employer had the floor most the time and it centered around the settlement letter. The referee asked her if she read and signed the letter and when she responded that her attorney kept pushing her to sign it without reading it. The referee asked again if she signed the agreement and when she said yes the hearing was over. 3 weeks later she received the letter saying she knowingly received unemployment benefits when not eligible.

 

[commentator]

Like I said, if she said something different than that she quit or resigned from her job when she filed for unemployment, that would have been interpreted as an attempt to defraud. As they asked her in the hearing, did you read and understand this letter when you signed it? If so, you understood that by signing this letter, you had resigned from your job. That's the reason you couldn't get benefits. Of course, if she had it to do over, she should have not signed, made them go on and fire her, and might have been able to win in court on the Worker's comp issue. She'd definitely have qualified for unemployment when released by her doctor. But she made the choice she did. Then if she filed for unemployment and told them anything different than about this settlement agreement as the reason she was no longer working there, then yes she has actually committed fraud.

The process is still the same. She needs to request a waiver of the overpayment. If she's not poor enough to qualify for the waiver, she'll have to pay the money back eventually.

 

[DeniedInPA]

No she did not commit fraud in any form. She answered everything honestly. I will have her follow through as you have mentioned.
Thanks for all your help