(Name changed for privacy; photo not the client.)
“Muriel,” not her real name, came to Jacksonville Area Legal Aid for help after being improperly denied Reemployment Assistance benefits.
She had taken a job with a government agency as an insurance claims adjuster, having been promised that she would receive mentoring in the role, which was new to her.
For the first year, her employment went well, but then a number of claims adjusters left the department, leaving Muriel with a much greater workload and without the benefit of a mentor or any day-to-day supervision.
Under the circumstances, Muriel’s job performance began to suffer, and instead of addressing her repeated requests for support, her managers gave her one performance warning after another, ultimately placing her on a Performance Improvement Plan. In the meantime, repeated power failures caused the computer system in the office to go down frequently over the course of a month, negatively affecting the timeliness of her claims resolution.
With constant interruptions in her access to the claims database adding to the challenges of the excessive workload and lack of supervision, Muriel’s productivity fell even further. This led to a suspension followed by termination of her employment two weeks later.
Although the termination was unjustified, Muriel decided not to appeal it, but rather file a claim with the Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) for Reemployment Assistance benefits. However, her benefits were denied because it was determined that she was terminated based upon misconduct.
After immediately appealing this denial, Muriel contacted JALA seeking representation in a hearing before the DEO Appeals Referee. However, due to high demand for JALA’s employment-related legal services, attorney Edith Jones was only able to offer guidance and advice as to how Muriel could best represent herself at the hearing.
Jones did extensive interviews with Muriel, as well as a thorough review of all her documentation, and gave her advice on how to defeat her former employer’s arguments that her poor job performance was deliberate and reckless.
Muriel went into her appeals hearing well-prepared and was able to show, despite the testimony of three senior managers, that she had not intentionally sabotaged her own job performance.
The DEO Appeals Referee reversed the denial of her Reemployment Assistance benefits, ruling that Muriel’s employer had failed in its burden to prove that her termination was due to her misconduct. Muriel, who was on the verge of losing her housing, was ecstatic about this decision, which she learned of within a day of the appeals hearing.
About Jacksonville Area Legal Aid
Jacksonville Area Legal Aid is a nonprofit law firm dedicated to delivering economic, social, and housing justice to low-income and at-risk individuals and families on the First Coast.
If you are an attorney interested in volunteering with employment-related issues, please contact Debra Talley, Pro Bono Case Placement Manager, at debra.talley@jaxlegalaid.org, or visit https://www.jaxlegalaid.org/pro-bono/.
