Unemployment Benefits for Domestic Violence Survivors

By: Lindsey Siegel, Staff Attorney, Atlanta Legal Aid Society

AVLF, together with the Family Division of the Fulton County Superior Court and the Partnership Against Domestic Violence, operates the Safe Families Office at the Fulton County Courthouse to assist victims of domestic violence secure Temporary Protective Orders (TPO) and receive other assistance such as safety planning.  Many of our domestic violence clients continue to have legal problems after they are awarded a TPO. One common scenario is that an abuser comes to or constantly calls the victim’s workplace and that victim resigns or is fired as a result.  One study found that 74% of employed battered women were harassed by their partner while at work.  In the Safe Families Office, we constantly hear of batterers sabotaging a victim’s employment, sometimes in an effort to make the victim more dependent on them, in retaliation for asserting independence, or to find a victim who is in hiding.

Lindsey Siegel, Staff Attorney, Atlanta Legal Aid Society

Earlier this summer, I teamed up with the Atlanta Legal Aid Society to take an unemployment insurance case to the Georgia Court of Appeals.  The case came about after a domestic violence client of mine resigned from her job because the father of her two children appeared at her workplace and she feared for her life.   After her employer opposed her application for unemployment benefits, she was denied benefits.  I took her case on appeal of that denial.  The case is one of first impression in Georgia, as no court here has ever awarded a domestic violence survivor unemployment benefits after she resigns from her job because of the abuse.

About a year ago, this client’s former abuser and father of her two children (who wasn’t supposed to know where she worked or lived) showed up at her workplace.  Because the past abuse she experienced was so severe, because he wasn’t supposed to have any contact with her, and because she thought her location was hidden, his mere presence at her job terrified her.  When he showed up at her home a week later, she knew she had no choice but to escape to a domestic violence shelter.  She not only feared for her and her children’s safety, but she knew everyone at her job was in danger if she stayed.

And she had good reason to be afraid.  Those of you who saw the July 2013 New Yorker article on domestic violence know that there are certain high-risk factors that indicate a likelihood of being killed.  In our case, the abuser’s conduct toward our client met many of those indicators, including obsessive behavior, stalking, violation of court orders, and a history of severe physical abuse (including during her pregnancy).  Her workplace would not be immune to the threat of his violence.  As many of you likely remember, in Atlanta’s not-so-distant past employees at the CNN Center complex and the Bank of America building were murdered by their intimate partners at work.

As my two-year fellowship at AVLF comes to a close this week, I’m reflecting on our decision to pursue this case through the various levels of appeal.  Economic self-sufficiency is critical for our domestic violence clients, as it often decides whether they can afford to leave an abusive situation.  Like any other employee who faces an unsafe situation at work, victims should be free to resign without risking the loss of benefits they’ve earned.  I’m glad that AVLF has supported this work and I’m thrilled to be continuing my work on the case in my new position at Atlanta Legal Aid’s DeKalb Office.

AVLF has been a wonderful place to start my legal career, and I’m so thankful to them and to the Skadden Fellowship program for giving me the opportunity to work on so many interesting and important cases.  On a daily basis, the staff, volunteers, and interns at the Safe Families Office have impressed me.  Their work with domestic violence victims and survivors is challenging (to say the least) and requires commitment, tenacity, and sometimes even a sense of humor.  Although I’m starting a new chapter in my legal career, I look forward to supporting and staying connected to AVLF’s work in any way I can.

"Lindsey Siegel worked with AVLF for two years as a Fellow funded by the law firm of Skadden Arps.  She concluded her fellowship earlier this month and is now working as a staff attorney with the Decatur Office of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society.  Through her fellowship, Lindsey focused on legal advocacy for domestic violence victims who encounter legal problems affecting their housing or employment.  We miss Lindsey already and are confident she will continue to do great work with Atlanta Legal Aid."