“It Ain’t Over Till it’s Over”

Yogi Berra is credited with that quote. There’s a lot of truth in it.

Last night Carol and I drove to Christina’s apartment and delivered some furniture donated by my other daughter. We shared a pleasant evening and a fancy dinner at their local Wendy’s. I read and savored the letter from the unemployment appeals tribunal, basking in continuing satisfaction from our success.

The decision is final, unless...

Yeah, darn it, the employer still has appeal rights. Within 14 days, he COULD appeal the tribunal’s decision to the full Workforce Commission.

The Texas Workforce Commission consists of three commissioners. One represents labor; one, employers; and one, the public. Their duties include reviewing appeals of hearings like ours.

Rarely does the commission overturn an appeals tribunal’s decision. The employer would have to point out a procedural violation by the hearing officer or blatant disregard for the facts presented. Or, there would have to be some new compelling evidence and a very good reason why that evidence was not presented at the hearing. “I forgot,” won’t cut it.

Since I’m convinced there are no smoking guns, much less good reasons, I think the odds of an appeal being filed are very low. Further, if an appeal is filed, I thing the odds of it having any success are nil.

My only concern is that an appeal by the employer might further delay Christina’s receipt of unemployment benefits, although I don’t think that’s how the law reads. Of course, interpreting that law is damn near impossible, even for an English major.

Yogi should have written the laws. Then we could all understand them.