White v. Evans

PER CURIAM. This is a class action filed to challenge certain policies and practices of the Department of Economic and Employment Development and its Office of Unemployment Insurance. Three legal aid organizations in this State represent three certified classes of claimants who are or will be applicants for or recipients of unemployment insurance benefits. They challenge, principally on due process grounds, policies and practices of the Department relating to the denial, reduction, delay and termination of unemployment insurance benefits.

The plaintiffs contend, among other things, that benefits are unduly delayed, denied, reduced, and terminated without appropriate hearings; that hearings, when provided, are not timely; that the files of applicants are maintained in a fashion that makes it unnecessarily difficult or impossible for an applicant to obtain information required to effectively pursue the claim; that the notices of denial, reduction, referral, and termination of benefits, as well as the notices of hearing and of rights concerning appeal are legally defective; and, that the Department affords insufficient notice and opportunity to be heard before a reduction or termination of benefits. Following extensive discovery proceedings and