Assaulted by my ex-boss, still denied benefits in NY??

by Jennifer
(Westchester, NY)

I worked for my former boss for 2 years. During the middle of tax season he was going through personal issues and was highly stressed. He had given me verbal permission to process my friend's return for a reduced fee at the beginning of the week. On Friday, he came storming into my office and started yelling that I had processed this return without his constant (sadly he approve the return verbally) I told him he gave me permission and even had an the invoice that he provided to me, prior to the return being processed. Long story short, he started to yell and scream at me, grabbed my wrist and almost broke my pinky. He was arrested and the criminal case is pending.

I was denied by the telephone rep, although I had stated that I could not understand him as he had a VERY heavy accent and felt he was not completing understanding my side of the story.

I had a hearing in front of a judge. I did have a laywer (pro bono) as I qualified but she wasn't very good I could tell that I wasn't going to win and of course I lost. I ended up sending an appeal letter on my own listing all the reasons I disagreed with the judge (mind you I didn't have a typical hearing as I had 2 hearings, 1 for my ex-employer & 1 for me and each hearing was 2-3 hours long) In his decision, he didn't list ANY of evidence, issues or statements. And for some reason the fact that I was assaulted on the job (with copies of police reports) was never mentioned! Thankfully, I found another job so I stopped filing for benefits soon after and fired the pro bono.

I guess the whole point of this story is to find out how long it will take the appeal board to come to a decision. I feel I have a great chance of winning if it's based off of the evidence alone.