Unemployment Insurance After a Fight

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You probably think there is no way to collect if you are fired for getting into a fight with a co-worker. Well, think again.

We represented an employee who was terminated after he got into a physical fight with a co-worker.   He was initially denied unemployment insurance benefits on the grounds that his actions were in violation of a reasonable and uniformly applied company policy prohibiting violence in the workplace.  The DUA also determined that physical fighting was deliberate misconduct in willful disregard of the employer’s interest, which is also a ground for disqualification.

At the appeal hearing, we first asked the employer questions about the employee’s long term employment, which was free of any warnings or other disciplinary actions.  We then prepared the employee to testify about the history of his interactions with the co-worker, and how the co-worker often provoked the employee by calling him names and telling him that he was not doing his job well. By presenting this history, the DUA examiner was able to better understand where the employee was coming from and his reactions on the particular day in question.        

Finally, we had the employee testify about how the co-worker was the first to attack him.  The employee acted in self-defense and therefore, did not intentionally engage in physical violence in the workplace. 

By providing a chronology of events at the hearing, the DUA review examiner was able to see that although the employee was in a fight, he acted out of self-defense and provocation.  Both are factors that mitigate the employee’s state of mind to act with deliberate misconduct.   The employee had no intention of violating a company policy or getting into a fight, and therefore, the DUA determined he was eligible to collect benefits.

You should keep in mind that in such a situation, even if the employer had legitimate grounds for terminating your employment, that does not determine whether you are eligible to collect unemployment benefits.  If we can help you demonstrate that you did not act intentionally, as we successfully did for this employee, you have a greater chance of collecting benefits on the grounds that you did not act deliberately, and the company policy, albeit reasonable, was unfairly applied.