In Florida, if a party want to appeal the decision of the Unemployment Appeals Commission, there is a conflict over which District Court of Appeal the case should be filed in. Essentially, appeals from most districts are heard by the local district court of appeal, except for employees who live in the the Second DCA, including Pasco & Pinellas, Hardee, Highlands, Polk, DeSoto, Manatee, Sarasota, Hillsborough, Charlotte, Glades, Collier, Hendry, and Lee, where they are heard by the First DCA located in Tallahassee.
Section 443.151(4)(3), Florida Statutes, provides that Unemployment Appeal Commission orders are to be reviewed by the “district court of appeal in the appellate district in which the issues involved were decided by an appeals referee.”
In Mendelman v. Dade County Public Schools, 674 So. 2d 195 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996) the Third District Court of Appeal held that with respect to a telephonic hearing, “the issues involved were decided” in more than one district when parties to the hearing participated from multiple districts. This has been read to mean that as long as one of the parties to the hearing was participating from a location within the jurisdiction the local district court of appeal would resolve the issue.
In contrast, the Second District Court of Appeal, in Lynch v. Unemployment Appeals Commission, 988 So. 2d 25 (Fla. 3d DCA 2008) held that the appeal had to be filed in the district from which the appeals referee participated in the telephonic hearing. Since the hearing officer initiated the telephonic
hearing from an office in Tallahassee, the Second District found that it was
not authorized to consider the appeal, and transferred the case to the First District Court of Appeal for resolution.
On May 19, 2010, in Croxall v. Unemployment Appeals Commission, the Second DCA certified a conflict the with decision of the Fifth DCA in Presnell v. Unemployment Appeals Commission, 1 So. 3d 1113 (Fla. 5th DCA 2009) over where appeals on the Unemployment Appeals Commission should be filed.
Hopefully the Florida Supreme Court will take this case and resolve the issue once and for all over where an employee should file an appeal of a decision of the Unemployment Appeals Commission.
