Don’t Tell It To The Judge
It's good to fire bad employees. It's not so good to yap about how bad they were at unemployment hearings.
Like a bad dream, that no-good employee just keeps reappearing.
Fed up with all the absences and sloppy work, you fired the bum and
thought you'd seen the last of him. But then he had the
audacity to file for unemployment compensation. And as soon as you
get the paperwork for that off your desk and trudge downtown for a
hearing, you find out he's sued your company for wrongful
termination. Then, in the midst of that quagmire, you learn the
worst: that the comments you made at the unemployment compensation
hearing when you wanted to get him out of your life are now
evidence in the lawsuit.
It can happen. Routine hearings over unemployment compensation
sometimes lay the groundwork for an employment lawsuit by the same
employee. In some states, issues decided by the unemployment
compensation commission may not be opened again in a court of law.
In others, where state law specifically bars that doctrine, offhand
comments made in the informal hearing may show up later as damaging
evidence in the lawsuit. Be careful how you handle unemployment
claims and consider how your response could be used against you in
court.
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Steven C. Bahls, dean of Capital University Law School in
Columbus, Ohio, teaches entrepreneurship law. Freelance writer Jane
Easter Bahls specializes in business and legal topics.
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