We hope that after you have read this booklet, you will under-stand whom and what to bring to the hearing, what you must prove, and how to do so. There is also a videotape that may be viewed at local UA branch offices, to further help you in understanding the Referee hearing process. An unemployment insurance Referee is an attorney who works full-time for the State of Michigan, hearing and deciding cases involving unemployment compensation. His or her job is to review documents and to listen carefully to the statements of both sides at the Referee hearing, and to decide what the facts are, based upon those statements and any other evidence. The Referee then decides how the law must be applied to those facts.
Parties are the people who have an interest in the outcome of an unemployment compensation case.
An employer may feel that the unemployment benefits should not be paid, or that the employer should not have to pay unemployment taxes, or that their tax rate is wrong. The claimant may feel that the UA should not have denied his or her claim for benefits. The UA may be at the hearing to support its previous rulings. Evidence could be anything used by a party to convince the Referee about the facts of the case. The most common type of evidence is called testimony which means statements made, under oath, at the Referee hearing, by a party or one of the party's witnesses, who has first-hand knowledge of the events.