Representation at a Hearing

Representation at a Hearing

What does representation from ULP mean?

The administrative hearing is your only chance to create a legal record regarding your unemployment benefits.

ULP representation involves (1) preparation for your hearing and (2) advocacy for you during the hearing. This helps to ensure that a good record is created and that your voice is heard. Also, having a seasoned representative beside you can be invaluable in accessing and navigating the legal system in a time of stress and need.

Additionally, as a non-profit law firm, we provide free legal services with our primary services being legal advice over the phone and representation at a hearing. Though our services are free, we do request that you consider optionally donating one week’s worth of benefits if we successfully represent you at a hearing.

What Do I Do If I Want Representation?

Step One:

Have the Office of Administrative Hearings send your docket or case file to the Unemployment Law Project. They can be reached at 509-456-3975 or at 1-800-366-0955 (Toll-Free). 

ULP Tip: We are unable to represent people who do not yet have a docket number. If this applies to you, look carefully through our FAQs as your question or concern may be addressed there. If you have not found the answer to your question after that, you can reach out to our office at 206-441-9178 to request a free advice appointment with one of our staff attorneys. 

Step Two:

Schedule an Intake Interview.  To do so, you can call our Seattle office at 206-441-9178 and select the hearing extension (108) or call our Spokane office at (509) 624-9178. Leave your name, docket number, a good call back number, and the hearing date if applicable on a voicemail, and one of our staff will follow up with you to schedule an intake interview as soon as we are able to. 

Step Three:

Do the Intake Interview: During the intake interview, someone from our office will ask you questions about you and your file in order to build a case file for you and your docket(s). 

Step Four:

Follow up on your intake interview after 1 business day has passed by contacting our office at the hearing extension (108).  Leave a voicemail stating that you’re following up on your intake interview as well as include your name, docket number and a good call back number. Someone from our office will return your call to discuss next steps shortly thereafter. 

Result:

If we are able to accept your case, we will assign you a representative. The representative can be an Unemployment Law Project staff member, an Unemployment Law Project Pro Bono attorney, or a private attorney who is a member of the OCLA Panel, which is a program affiliated with the Unemployment Law Project. We will then connect you to the representative to prepare for the case.

If you do not have a hearing date scheduled, please be aware that we may not be able to assign you a representative immediately. It will be your responsibility to communicate with us the hearing date and time as soon as it has been scheduled so that there is adequate time to assign a representative and prepare for the hearing.

If we are unable to take your case, you can call us and we can schedule a time for you to get free advice over the phone from a staff attorney about how to present your case. These appointments are available on a first come first serve basis.