Tips and info

State Unemployment Appeals Departments Now Scheduling Saturday Hearings

July 2009

One of the many consequences of the recession is the fact that there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of unemployment claims filed nationwide and along with it a growing backlog of related appeals for unemployment hearings.

Unfortunately as result of these backlogs, it is not uncommon for hearings to be held months after the original appeal was filed. Therefore, a number of state unemployment insurance agencies have recently implemented Saturday hearing schedules.

States currently scheduling UI hearings on Saturdays are California, Florida and New Mexico. Each state “dockets” the hearings according to its own set of parameters. Important highlights are as follows:

California: Saturday hearings are being docketed by the Inland and San Diego Appeals Offices of the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board (CUIAB), which services the Rancho Cucamonga and the San Bernardino hearing locations, respectively. The CUIAB expects to schedule hearings each Saturday, except July 4th through the end of August 2009. At that point, the backlog issue will be reviewed and the Saturday hearing dockets will end if the backlog has been sufficiently reduced. For employers that do not normally operate on Saturdays, the CUIAB will consider a postponement.

Florida: Saturday hearings are being scheduled by the Agency for Workforce Innovation Appeals Division. The agency is giving consideration to employers who are not doing business on weekends. If an employer is normally operational on Saturdays, then the state is not likely to grant a hearing continuance or postponement.

New Mexico: The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions Appeals division began docketing Saturday hearings on May 30, 2009 and will continue at least through July 25, 2009. Once the case backlog issue is resolved, the appeals division will discontinue Saturday hearings.

Illinois is scheduling Saturday hearings in a few instances, as well as New Jersey on both Saturday and Sunday. Both states are trying to restrict the cases to those that do not require employer participation.

Saturday unemployment hearings are temporary. However, it is expected that other state agencies will adopt the practice as a way to clear up their backlogs. Our claims manager, TALX UC eXpress is working with state agencies to lessen the impact of Saturday hearings on our members. They have also asked that cases be profiled so that only those cases with less complex issues are scheduled on Saturdays.