STATE OF WISCONSIN
LABOR AND INDUSTRY REVIEW COMMISSION
P O BOX 8126, MADISON, WI 53708-8126 (608/266-9850)


DEBRA L JACOBSON, Employe

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE DECISION
Hearing No. 99003358MD


An administrative law judge (ALJ) for the Division of Unemployment Insurance of the Department of Workforce Development issued a decision in this matter. A timely petition for review was filed.

The commission has considered the petition and the positions of the parties, and it has reviewed the evidence submitted to the ALJ. Based on its review, the commission agrees with the decision of the ALJ, and it adopts the findings and conclusion in that decision as its own.

DECISION

The decision of the administrative law judge is affirmed. Accordingly, the employe is ineligible for benefits in week 30 and 31 of 1999. Thereafter, the employe is eligible for benefits, if otherwise qualified.

Dated and mailed November 26, 1999
jacobde.usd : 105 : 1 CP 360

/s/ David B. Falstad, Chairman

/s/ Pamela I. Anderson, Commissioner

/s/ James A. Rutkowski, Commissioner


MEMORANDUM OPINION

The commission has affirmed the appeal tribunal decision in this case, because it agrees with the administrative law judge that no exceptional circumstances justify the employe's late claims for weeks 30 and 31. The notion "exceptional circumstances" is defined in the Wisconsin Administrative Code, and does not necessarily have the same meaning there as what might be considered "exceptional" in other contexts. Error made by department personnel, for example, or reasonable misunderstanding by claimants of information given them by the department, are exceptional circumstances under the administrative code. So is action by an employer warning, instructing, or persuading a claimant not to file a claim. The employe could not testify that she properly filed a telephone claim for week 30; if she did not do so, the record indicates that that was a failure on her part, and not an exceptional circumstance as defined by the code. The employe did not timely file her week 31 claim because she did not think she would be eligible for unemployment insurance that week; again, this does not constitute an exceptional circumstance as defined in the code, at Wis. Admin. Code § DWD 129.01(4). For these reasons, and those stated in the appeal tribunal decision, the commission has affirmed that decision.


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