The Gusdorf Law Firm, LLC filed a Petition in Superior Court in Georgia to appeal a determination that our client had been terminated because of misconduct. Like most states, Georgia law puts the burden on the employer to show, by a preponderance of evidence, that the client was disqualified because of her conduct. A “preponderance of evidence” means that the testimony and documents offered are more convincing than the evidence offered in opposition to it, that is, evidence which as a whole shows the fact to be proved more likely to be true than not.
In this case, the employer had provided 2 witnesses at the hearing who had no personal knowledge about our client’s job. They each tried to testify about an investigation conducted by the employer, but neither one was actually involved in any step of that process, and neither actually saw any of our client actually doing the actions of which she was accused. Furthermore, the record showed that the employer did not tell our client, or any other employees for that matter, that certain types of conduct could result in termination.
After briefing and oral argument, the Court agreed with the Gusdorf Law Firm that the employee was not at fault in causing her discharge. The Court therefore reversed the decision of the Georgia Department of Labor, and awarded benefits to our client. Even though the Gusdorf Law Firm had not represented her at the original hearing of her appeal, we were pleased to be able to provide such a positive result for our client.
