My former employer is fighting me for Unemployment Insurance rights- should I get a lawyer to help me?

I am a paralegal. My former boss is a seasoned attorney.

What can I do to win my case? Here are the details of my employment, and I will try to be as honest as possible:

I started working in this small office in GA in May, 2007. There were only four people in the office- myself, two lawyers, and a secretary. I handled mostly SSDI cases.

I am a new paralegal. This was my first job in a decade. I have been disabled due to severe OCD, depression, and anxiety for the past ten years.

I made a lot of mistakes in my job. I won't lie. I take full responsibility for them. I did screw up a few times.

I was intimidated by my boss. She yelled and treated me verbally abusively. I had to deal with a condescending attitude from my employer. On a few occasions, I was not paid on time. My pay was very very low for a legal assistant.

My boss was so cheap, she would complain if I used 2 cents of postage over what I should have in mailing business letters.

How can I win my case?

daniel h

Your boss is most likely "fighting" you on this because any benefits your get come out of their pockets in some way or another in unemployment taxes. My advice is to stick with the facts of separation from the company. I have dealt with an employee and Unemployment Benefits for this same reason. She felt much like you did. The unemployment adjudicator (with the Department of Workforce Services) will send a request for information from your employer. It will asks such questions if you were fired and if so why? if you knew that your behavior was unacceptable at work (usually through new hire orientation or policy acknowledgments) and also what harm your behavior caused the company, if any. If you quit and put in your two weeks notice and your boss let you go before you're two weeks are up, they will ask why you couldn't work the rest of the time. If you walked off, your chances of "winning" are minimal. You would have to prove constructive discharge--meaning that future employment was unbearable for a "reasonable person" due to the behavior of co workers and/or supervisors. This is where the burden of proof falls solely on you. Coming full circle, just state the facts and good luck.

leysarob

You don't really need an attorney for this.

If you made mistakes and the mistakes were documented by your employer it's likely you won't collect unemployment for the initial period (in my state it's 8 weeks). No attorney can change those facts.

Your best bet is to let this go and look seriously for another job. When you get interviews with other attorneys (it's likely your former boss has a reputation that most will know) simply explain that the two of you didn't get along on a personal level. Don't bad mouth her, just say it was personal, and simply didn't work out.

Good luck.

Barry auh2o

Your first step would be to file an appeal with the Unemployment Insurance agency. Have you done that???
If you have done that and are still denied, they will advise you of what steps to take.

Rick B

Did you get fired or quit?

If you quit, you have no case.

If you got fired, it seems kind of silly to try to go up against an attorney. Just get another job!

Janet P

None of the above is really relevent to unemployment. You need to stick to relevent facts. The only thing that really matters is the process of your unemployment.

If you were fired for cause (those mistakes) you can not collect. If you quit you can not collect.

If you were fired w/o cause, the office burnt down or something, or you were laid off because of lack of work you can collect.

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