AB819 signed into law

The Advisory Council Bill, AB819, was signed into law by Governor Walker and published on March 31st as 2015 Wis. Act 334. Details of this new law were described in this previous post about the bill.

The concealment changes will probably have the biggest impact on unemployment law. As noted previously, these changes mean that the Department will no longer need to show an intent to conceal when alleging concealment against claimants. Claimants will essentially be strictly liable for their mistakes and subject to steep and unforgiving concealment penalties.

Given the risk of making a mistake when filing an unemployment claim (especially as the claim filing process becomes increasingly complex), NO ONE SHOULD EVER FILE FOR UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS ANY LONGER. Since any mistake can now lead to a charge for concealment, claimants will be at the mercy of Department whims about when to consider a mistake as concealment or not.

If a person has no other choice but to file an unemployment claim, the only way to escape a concealment charge is to demonstrate that the mistake occurred because of advice from a Department representative. So, claimants should call up a Department representative and have that person walk him or her through the entire claim-filing process for EVERY weekly certification. Make sure to ask questions about everything that could possibly be an issue in your claim and to document the advice you receive from the representative about those issues. Note that is common for one representative to contradict the advice of a prior representative, so your notes about the advice you receive will be crucial to surviving a concealment charge.

Keep in mind that the Department has numerous notices during the claims-filing process about how folks should contact the Department with any questions they might have. So, take the Department up on this offer and actually ask for the kind of detailed advice you need to complete a successful unemployment claim.