Judge dismisses lawsuit over Florida's unemployment system

A Leon County circuit judge Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to force the state to process and pay unemployment claims that have been delayed amid a crush of people losing jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The potential class-action lawsuit was filed last month as the state’s CONNECT unemployment system faced massive problems. But after a telephone hearing Wednesday, Judge Angela Dempsey said the plaintiffs did not meet legal requirements for a relatively unusual type of order known as a “writ of mandamus.”

“I believe we all want these claims to be resolved efficiently, and we all feel bad for these folks that are having to wait, but I’m bound by the law of mandamus and by the law as it’s written (in a chapter of state statutes),” Dempsey said.

From March 15 to Tuesday, the state system received more than 1.8 million unemployment claims, of which more than 1.1 million were considered “unique,” with the difference due to duplicates or incomplete paperwork. Of the unique claims, nearly 770,000 had been processed as of Tuesday. Payments had been made to 481,497 claimants.

Read more: https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2020/05/07/judge-dismisses-lawsuit-over-floridas-unemployment-system