Client Interview
♦ Fiorentino & Hacker LLP ♦
Washington, DC 20008
MEMORANDUM
TO: Law Office Students
FROM: Professor Fiorentino
DATE: April 5, 2018
RE: Laura Santos; Unemployment Compensation Appeal
Our firm is representing Ms. Laura Santos in a public housing eviction matter. D.C. Housing Authority (DCA) served Ms. Santos with a notice to vacate because the District of Columbia Police Department arrested her husband for felony drug distribution. During this process, DCA discovered that Ms. Santos is an undocumented immigrant, and DCA has reported that information to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Attorney Hacker referred Ms. Santos’s immigration matter to the Immigration and Human Rights Clinic. She has referred Ms. Santos’s unemployment compensation case to the General Practice Clinic
Based upon the information on the clinic intake sheet, Ms. Santos is a native of Senegal who arrived in the U.S. in 2010 on a visitor’s visa. She has lived in the U.S. undocumented for the past six years with her husband, a U.S. citizen. Although Ms. Santos was aware that her husband was selling marijuana, she felt there was nothing that she could do because he is very aggressive towards her. The intake sheet indicates that her husband has hit her on several occasions, but she never left the marriage because her husband threatened to report her to the Department of Homeland Security.
In October 2017, she quit her job at a local convenience store because her husband threatened to kill her and her supervisor. When her husband was arrested, she tried to get her job back, but the position was filled. She then filed for unemployment, but her claim was denied because she voluntarily quit her position.
Typically, a claimant cannot qualify for unemployment if the separation from her job is voluntary. There is one exception I think might work for Ms. Santos on appeal. Ms. Santos may be able to receive benefits under a provision of the code that takes domestic violence into consideration. “. . . [N]o otherwise eligible individual shall be denied benefits for any week because the individual was separated from employment by discharge or voluntary or involuntary resignation due to domestic violence against the individual . . . .” D.C. Code § 51-131(a).
In order to be considered eligible for benefits under §51-131, a claimant must be able to show that (1)they suffered domestic violence, and (2)domestic violence played a “substantial factor” in their separation of employment. E.C. v. RCM of Wash., Inc. 92 A3d 305 (2014).
To establish that a claimant's separation from employment was "due to domestic violence" under D.C.Code § 51-131, a claimant must show that: (1) the claimant suffered domestic violence that qualifies as an "intrafamily offense" under the Intrafamily Offenses Act4 ("IFOA"), along with qualifying supporting documentation, and (2) domestic violence played a "substantial factor" in the claimant's separation from employment.
Further, D.C. Code § 51-131 (1)(b) states to be eligible “to receive [unemployment compensation] benefits for separation from employment due to domestic violence,” a claimant must submit…support [for] the claim of domestic violence” which a claimant can establish through various means, including: (1) a police report or record; (2) a governmental agency or court record, such as a court order, a Petition for a Civil Protection Order, or a record or report from Child Services; or (3) a written statement which affirms that the claimant has sought assistance for domestic violence from the signatory, from a: shelter official, social worker, counselor, therapist, attorney, medical doctor, or cleric. Hence, we need to find out if there is evidence that Ms. Santos can provide to meet these requirements.