In a rather unique New York Workers’ Compensation case involving a Claimant directed to look for work since January 2023, the Law Judge found that there was no attachment to the labor market after a contentious two-day trial. The Law Judge noted that the Claimant submitted more searches than the Law Judge had ever “seen in [his] career” – 2,300 job searches with an additional 200 submitted in advance of the second half of the adjourned trial.
Attorney Meisha Powell and her team combed the records, looked for issues, and was able to secure a result that the Claimant had not met his burden for a diligent, persistent, and consistent job search. In fact, Powell was able to convince the Law Judge that the job search efforts were performed in bad faith and that his intension was not to find work but merely go through the motions. What was abundantly clear from looking at the records was that the Claimant mainly applied to jobs using one online job search platform, and Powell highlighted that it was unimaginable that the Claimant would continue to seek work in this way. In addition, sifting through thousands of pages led to a discovery of a résumé that the Claimant provided to potential employers, where the Claimant told employers that he was “totally disabled,” but had been “directed to look for work.” The Law Judge found this gesture akin to “sinking the ship before it sails.”
The ultimate outcome after a grueling two days’ worth of testimony on the Claimant’s job searches was that the Claimant was not looking for work that he thought he could actually obtain. Thus, he was justifiably found unattached to the labor market. Powell highlighted that the quality of the job search should not overshadowed by the quantity of jobs applied, and the Law Judge agreed with this assessment. As a result, no indemnity benefits were paid or owed to the Claimant.
