Appeal request filed by employer - Ohio

by Tom
(Columbus, Ohio)

I was terminated from my job in December '09, and successfully passed my initial on 1/19/2010.
Today (2/10/2010), I received a "request for appeal has been filed" notice from Ohio Unemployment. The employer's reason for filing the request is somewhat vague - it connects unrelated issues from a full year (almost 13 months, actually) prior to what happened to cause my termination, as well as connecting me to an incident that occurred at the job site when I was not there and had absolutely no connection with at all. In fact, it appears to make me the person responsible for the incident.
All told, I have 3 points of contention toward the validity of my former employer's statement.

What I would like to know is:
Should I attempt to reply to this and provide clarifying information, or just wait and appeal if necessary?


Hi Tom,

If you already received a determination allowing benefits .. I suspect, that since you are in Ohio .. what you have received is a notice that the employer has requested a "redetermination".

Normally the process is like this in OH.

I guess it wouldn't hurt to call the department or fax in a clarifying rebuttal .. but unless the employer's story has changed from their initial response to the claim filed notice and or they have submitted supporting documentation with their appeal .. I wouldn't expect the state to reverse.

What I would expect if they have just resubmitted the same story is the redetermination to affirm the first one and the employer to appeal that .. at which time you'd all go to hearing.