California Unemployment Appeal Not the End of the Road

Sacramento, CAHaving a California unemployment insurance claim denied can be surprising, especially for workers who feel they meet all the criteria for filing a claim. But sometimes employers misrepresent the reason for terminating employment, leading to an unfair California unemployment insurance denial. In such cases, workers can file a claim to have their case considered by the Employment Development Department (EDD). Although there are tight deadlines that must be met, it can be financially beneficial to speak with an attorney to discuss options.

Filing an appeal might also be logical, given that California’s Employment Development Department was audited in 2014, over its handling of thousands of unemployment insurance claims. According to the Los Angeles Times (3/12/14), officials were concerned that more than half of the unemployment insurance claimants who appealed their EDD decision won their appeal. Applicants at the time also complained about unanswered phone calls and delays in payments being made.

One claimant interviewed in the article, Niki Lee, said she wound up homeless after EDD failed to respond to her requests to postpone an eligibility interview. Despite winning her appeal of her denial, she had not received money by the time this article was written.

As a result of such concerns, an audit was ordered. That audit, also reported on by the Los Angeles Times (8/28/14), found hundreds of thousands of claims for jobless benefits were wrongly denied and later overturned by administrative judges. The audit also found claimants waited months to receive benefits they depended on to pay for their bills, including housing.

Among the auditor’s findings were that EDD workers did not properly investigate claims - including not adequately gathering vital information from claimants and employers. The audit was carried out by State Auditor Elaine M. Howle, who noted that part of the problem could be that EDD workers are often forced to make quick decisions rather than conducting thorough claims reviews. Such quick decisions reportedly included failing to adequately show that applicants were purposely lying about how much they earned before they lost their jobs rather than making honest mistakes in reporting their income.

“Of the more than 390,000 decisions the appeals board made in each of the last three full fiscal years and of the nearly 230,000 decisions made between July 1, 2013 and April 23, 2014 at the first level, 91 percent were from appeals filed by claimants, and the appeals board decided in favor of claimants between 45 percent and 51 percent of the time,” Howell’s report notes. “Consequently, those claimants may have waited unnecessarily to receive their unemployment benefits.”

Claimants applying for unemployment insurance are often in financially vulnerable positions and need the income to make ends meet. But they face strict deadlines for filing their appeals. In such cases, an experienced unemployment appeals attorney can help navigate the system.