Unemployment Insurance Lawsuit

Legal Aid has sued the District of Columbia unemployment agency (Department of Employment Services — DOES) for cutting off, denying or taking people’s unemployment benefits without notice. Please see the articles in the Washington Post and on DCist about the case.

Can I be part of the litigation? 

If you applied for unemployment benefits in the District of Columbia, we might be able to help you if you:

  1. Were denied benefits and never got a notice from DC, OR
  2. Got benefits and they were cut off without a notice from DC, OR
  3. Got benefits and the DC government took them to pay back an overpayment and DC did not explain or give notice why they thought you owed them money

How can I apply for help?

If any of the above applies to you, please apply for help online at Online Intake. If you can’t apply online, you can call our intake line at 202-628-1161.


We cannot guarantee that we will be able to help you or include you in the lawsuit.  If we think we can help, we will follow up within two weeks.

Legal Aid thanks the four named plaintiffs for their courage in filing this case: Mulugeta Hailu, William Perry, Mizan Werede, and Yohannes Woube.

Complaint and motion for preliminary injunction