When your appeal needs a hearing or proceeding
You can appeal a decision you disagree with. If you provide new information in your appeal request, we'll review your case to see if we can change the decision.
If we can't change a decision about your benefits, the next step is hearing or proceeding. We'll send your appeal to the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) to start this process.
About the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH)
OAH is a separate state agency that holds hearings and proceedings for appeals. After we send them your appeal, they will contact you by email or mail. If your contact details change, please update both us and OAH.
You can find more information on the OAH Participant Portal under "Manage My Case."
How OAH handles appeals
OAH will assign a judge to your case. Then they will decide whether to review your appeal through a brief adjudicative proceeding or a telephone hearing. Learn more about each of these options below.
Adjudicative proceedings
If OAH can handle your appeal quickly, they will review it in a brief adjudicative proceeding. They will send you a notice and allow you to submit more information.
The judge will review your case, then make a decision. They will upload the decision to the OAH Participant Portal and mail a copy to you.
Learn more about brief adjudicative proceedings on the OAH website.
Telephone hearings
If OAH can't handle your appeal quickly, they will:
- Schedule a telephone hearing.
- Send you a 'Notice of Hearing' with the date, time and instructions for the hearing.
- Send copies of your file to you, your witnesses and any interested employers.
After you receive the Notice of Hearing, you can use the OAH Participant Portal to track your appeal.
If you did not get a Notice of Hearing but believe OAH received your appeal, call OAH at 800-366-0955.
How to prepare for a hearing
Before your hearing, you may want to do the following things.
Make sure your address is up to date
If your address changes before your appeal hearing, update it with us and OAH. OAH may deny your appeal if you don't attend your hearing because you didn't update your address.
Give us additional information
While waiting for your hearing or proceeding, you can provide additional information that may help us change our decision. We can change our decision up to 48 hours before your hearing. This might be a faster way to resolve your issue.
Get free legal help
You may hire a lawyer. If you can't afford a lawyer, you might be able to get free or low-cost legal help from these places:
- Office of Civil Legal Aid (OCLA).
- Unemployment Law Project (call toll-free at 888-441-9178).
- CLEAR (part of the Northwest Justice Project) (call toll-free at 888-201-1014).
- Your local county bar association.
What to expect from your hearing
During your hearing, you may need to:
- Give testimony under oath.
- Question witnesses.
- Present evidence or testimony to support your case.
- Show your job search logs.
If you don't attend the hearing, the judge may rule against you.
What happens after your hearing
Based on the evidence and testimony from the hearing, OAH will make a decision. They will send it to us within 5 days of the hearing. We usually update your claim within 2 weeks of receiving their decision.
If the judge rules in your favor
If you appealed a denial of benefits, we'll pay you for the weeks we denied. Make sure your payment information is up to date.
If we denied your benefits for multiple reasons affecting the same weeks, you won't be paid for those weeks. You'll need to appeal all denials for those same weeks.
If we decided that you were overpaid, we will reverse that decision. You will not need to pay back the benefits you received.
You can request another appeal if you disagree with the decision. The decision includes instructions on appealing.
If the judge rules against you
If you disagree with the judge's decision, you can file a petition for review with the Commissioner's Review Office. The decision, also known as an initial order, includes instructions on petitioning.