Florida Unemployment Website is Inadequate, Lawsuit Claims

A lawsuit has been filed by Florida citizens who claim the unemployment website for their state does not function properly.

The Florida unemployment lawsuit was filed against the Governor of Florida and the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.

Plaintiffs Richard Walls, Desiree Del Romano and Mike Latner claim that they attempted to utilize the CONNECT system to file for unemployment, but have not been successful due to the flawed computer system.

Walls says that he was laid off on March 23, 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. On that same day, he reportedly attempted to use the CONNECT system to file for unemployment to obtain benefits that were due to him under the law.

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Walls states that from March 23, 2020 to April 23, 2020 he has been unable to make contact with anyone at the Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) in order to obtain his benefits.

He says that the unemployment website has been unusable and that his status has been listed as “pending” since March 23, 2020. Walls claims that he has sometimes been able to log into the unemployment compensation website, however, the site winds up displaying various error messages.

Del Romano says she had similar experiences trying to file for unemployment benefits. She states that she worked for Delta Airlines and was told on March 15, 2020 that her hours were going to be reduced because of the coronavirus.

She claims that on that day, she applied for unemployment through the CONNECT system but it kept on knocking her off and rejecting her application.

The plaintiff claims that it took her numerous days to get through on the website in order to submit her application on March 17, 2020. She states that she finally reached a service representative after being on hold for five hours, only to be told that the system was down and none of her questions could be answered. 

Del Romano states that as of the filing of this lawsuit, she has still not obtained unemployment benefits.

“Plaintiffs, and all others situated, were unable to obtain access to the unemployment system to apply for benefits and even after gaining said access, were diverted to another site or have been unable to obtain RA/unemployment compensation benefits rightfully due to them,” the Florida unemployment lawsuit argues.

The plaintiffs allege that the defendants have failed to maintain an adequate employment compensation system to pay valid claims to unemployed citizens in Florida, some of the most needy due to the coronavirus pandemic.

An article in USA Today states that the system was created by former Governor Rick Scott and a Republican dominated legislature seven years ago and that it is now failing Florida workers during a pandemic that has seen record-setting unemployment. 

The article states that the current Governor Ron Desantis knew about the flawed unemployment benefits system, but did not act until it had a “meltdown” after more people were laid off and were looking to the state for assistance.

In addition, the article goes on to say that the system was taken down for a weekend so that it could be worked on.

ABC Action News in Tampa points to another lawsuit that was filed against the Governor, the DEO, and Deloitte Consulting LLC, a contractor who had developed the site years ago. That lawsuit alleges that the system was not created and administered correctly.

The article also notes that more than 1.8 million claims have been submitted to the unemployment system, although some might be duplicate or triplicate claims.

The article goes on to say that nearly 219,000 claims have been processed and that around 153,000 have been paid out.

Another plaintiff in this case, Latner, says he was laid off from his job as a restaurant worker on March 20, 2020. He claims to have applied for unemployment benefits on March 22, 2020.

Latner says that it took him two weeks to attempt to claim unemployment benefits, which he was going to use to support himself and his family.

He says he finally received a notice for his unemployment benefits claim on April 20, 2020 and was told that he was “ineligible” for benefits because he did not make enough money when he was with his employer. Latner claims that this is false, as he has been with his employer for a year and a half.

Common questions of law and fact in the Florida unemployment class action lawsuit include: 1) payments of unemployment benefits to the citizens of the state of Florida; and 2) whether the defendants failed to maintain an adequate unemployment compensation system to pay valid claims to the citizens of Florida during the coronavirus pandemic.

The plaintiffs are represented by Gautier Kitchen of the Kitchen Law Firm and Marie A. Mattox and Julie Meadows Keefe of Marie A. Mattox PA.

The Florida Unemployment Class Action Lawsuit is Richard Walls, et al. v. Ron Desantis, et al., Case No. 20 CA 000792, in the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit for Leon County, Florida.

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