Rowan Hayes was cautiously optimistic when she read a Dec. 6, 2023, letter from the Oregon Employment Department saying she was eligible for unemployment benefits she received during the pandemic and would be getting a refund on money the department had ordered her to pay back.
The letter, dated 10 days after the Statesman Journal published a story about OED myriad rulings in her case, was a reversal of a 2020 department decision that Hayes had quit working without good cause and therefore had to pay the state back the $14,000 she received throughout the pandemic.
The Oregon Law Center sued OED and Director David Gerstenfeld in 2022 on behalf of six Oregonians who had been ordered to repay unemployment benefits, referring to the overpayment system as “impenetrable” and “fragmented” without “a clear explanation for why the government could take back benefits already paid.”
Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Eric Dahlin is hearing the case to determine whether the process to inform Oregonians they were overpaid violates their constitutional rights to due process.