Rhode Island Unemployment Compensation Appeals
3/23/2012
Have you been denied unemployment compensation benefits by the Director of the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training based upon an allegation by your former employer of misconduct? If so, you should consider appealing your case to the Board of Review for the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, and contacting an attorney as soon as practicable. Attorneys fees are paid by the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training upon a successfull appeal under RIGL 28-44-57. The attorney fee is a seperate award that does not come out of or reduce the benefits that are awarded to the claimant employee. Additionally, if the employer alleges that benefits should be denied based upon alleged misconduct, the employer bears the burden of proof in demonstrating that the employee engaged in misconduct as defined by RIGL section 28-44-18. This requires that the employer show at the hearing that the employee engaged in conduct that is "evincing such willful or wanton disregard of an employer's interest as is found in deliberate violations or of standards of behavior which the employer has the right to expect of his employee, or in carelessness or negligence of such degree or recurrence as to manifest equal culpability, wrongful intent or evil design, or to show a substantial disregard of the employer's interest or of the employee's duties and obligations to his employer. " Mere ineffeciency, failure of good performance and ordinary negligence is not enough to support a denial of benefits. Turner v. Department of Employment and Training, Board of Review, 479 A2nd. 740. (RI 1984).
