NEW YORK UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE - HEARINGS AND APPEALS - VULGAR LANGUAGE - CASE NO. 5

Closing statements were then made. This was a rare case where I actually made an objection to the employer's closing - the reason was that the HR supervisor, who was representing the employer and was it's sole witness, began to berate the claimant in it's closing statement. Words like "You should have known", "Your behavior was unacceptable", "You decided..." I told the ALJ - this is a closing statement, the claimant is no longer employed by the employer, this is not an opportunity for an HR supervisor to discipline it's employees but a closing statement - the HR representative should address any comments to the ALJ and not the claimant. The ALJ agreed and advised the HR supervisor to make any statements to the ALJ and not to the claimant. After my closing statement, which addressed the case law mentioned at the beginning of this series, the ALJ advised that the hearing was closed and that a decision would be issued.