In Ohio, there are several levels available to claimants during the unemployment process.
- Initial Level
- Appeal Level
- Unemployment Hearing (usually conducted over the telephone)
- Appeal to the Commission (they won’t even touch it unless it’s a precedent-setting opportunity)
- File it into court
In 13 years in HR, I have never seen a former employee file an unemployment claim appeal into court. I never lose claims, so normally the claimants give up after the hearing level, or the Commission denies their appeal anyway.
But I actually had a former employee call me yesterday and tell me that he intended to file an appeal into court. My thought – we won at the initial level, we won when he appealed, we won the hearing and the Commission denied his final appeal. Oh, I forgot to mention that he resigned in writing with notice. I’m sorry, but that’s not a winner in the unemployment world. So I told him he’d probably be better served looking for a job.