News & Information

CCH® UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE — 03/17/10

Colorado amends its UI regulations

Colorado has amended its rules under the Colorado Employment Security Act as follows:

Appeals procedure. The regulations now provide that any written statement that expresses disagreement with a determination or states a party’s desire for review will be accepted as an appeal. If the statement does not state the specific reasons for the appeal, it must be supplemented and the information provided to the other interested parties before the date of the hearing. Failure to do will result in those issues being excluded from the hearing.

This section now also provides that the hearing officer is responsible for taking evidence in a way that fully and fairly develops the relevant evidence, safeguards the parties’ rights and ascertains the substantive rights of the parties based on the merits. The appealing party must present evidence to support the issues it raises on appeal. The hearing officer must oversee the development of the evidence and participate in the interrogation process to ensure that the relevant evidence is submitted and the record is fully developed.

The appeals panel may affirm, modify, reverse or set aside a hearing officer’s decision on the basis of the evidence in the record. In addition, the majority of the members of the entire panel may remand a case for the taking of further evidence if not doing so would result in a miscarriage of justice.

The appeals panel also may designate a decision as precedential to be followed by the hearing officers and deputies of the Division, if the decision interprets a statute, rule or resolves an apparent conflict of authority. Such decisions will be promptly provided to the hearing officers and deputies of the Division, and published and made available to the public.

Good cause. The rules now provide that if a party has submitted a written statement with an untimely appeal or new hearing request, but the appeals panel cannot determine from the statement whether there is good cause to allow for timely filing, the appeals panel will make a reasonable effort to find the information to determine whether or not the appeal is timely.

In determining whether good cause has been shown for allowing an untimely action or excusing a failure to act, the appeals panel must now consider whether the untimely action or failure to act resulted from circumstances that would cause a reasonably careful individual to neglect a duty and whether factors outside the party’s control interfered with his or her opportunity to act. Note, that the acts and omission of a party’s representative are considered the acts and omissions of the party and are not considered to be such a factor.

A party who does not keep the Division informed of his or her current address will be excused if he or she was physically or mentally unable to provide that address in a prompt manner.