Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission --
Summary of Wisconsin Court Decision relating to Unemployment Insurance


Subject: LeeAnna S. O'Halloran, vs. LIRC and Community Health Partnership, Case 01 CV 656 (Wis. Cir. Ct., Eau Claire Co., December 11, 2002)

Digest Codes: MC 630.09

The employee, a home health aide for the employer, was scheduled to provide home services to a client. The employee had car trouble on the way to the appointment, and so telephoned the employer to indicate she would be unable to make the appointment. Nonetheless, the following week the employee submitted a timesheet and care plan chart to the employer which indicated that the employee had provided services to the client on that date. The employee charted that she had provided skin care, catheter care, and medication assistance, and that the client had rated her pain at zero. The employee admitted having filled out the paperwork in question days after the missed appointment, relying upon the employer's master schedule. The employer discharged the employee for falsification of her timesheet and of the medical records in question. The initial determination found misconduct, as did the administrative law judge.

LIRC affirmed. The employee's irregular schedule did not excuse the employee's failure to follow simple and reasonable charting procedures (including notations on the chart at the time services are provided). Nor could the employee explain how she charted specific cares for the client on a day she performed no services for the client in question.

Held: Affirmed. Credible and substantial evidence supported the commission's conclusion that the employee's submission of the reports in question was intentional falsification of records and patient charting. The court applied the great weight standard of evidence to the commission's legal conclusion, affirming the commission's finding of misconduct. The court reasoned, in the alternative, that the employee's actions were so careless and negligent as to constitute misconduct (even without an intention to defraud the employer).


Please note that this is a summary prepared by staff of the commission, not a verbatim reproduction of the court decision.

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