Clinic Helps Unemployed Fight For Benefits

A clinic at Duquesne University may find more people seeking out its services due to the slow economy. The Unemployment Compensation Clinic provides help to people who have been denied benefits and cannot afford to hire a private attorney to make an appeal. Supervising attorney Michael Simon says many people who are referred to the clinic are a paycheck or two away from living on the street. And he says the appeals process can involve a daunting amount of paperwork.

In addition to helping the community, Simon says it's great experience for students. Their work most often involves representing clients at "referee's hearings," the first step in appealing a denial of an unemployment benefits claim. For some students, those hearings provide their first opportunity to practice what they've learned in an actual court setting.

Third-year law student Phil Deily is among the students working at the clinic this year. Although he says he plans to go into corporate law, he says the clinic has helped him develop his skills. He represented three clients this past semester. The first was denied unemployment benefits after he was accused of sleeping on the job. Deily says he was able to win that case because the person's employer lacked proof of what actually happened. He's still waiting for decisions in his other two hearings.