An Arizona court ruling says the state must waive interest owed by unemployment benefits recipients who were overpaid but whose appeals were among hundreds of cases that were long buried.
The Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that six recipients' constitutional due-process rights were violated and must have interest waived, but noted that the Department of Economic Security reported it already was doing that in all delayed cases with overpayments not involving fraud.
The Court of Appeals last year rebuked the department after a judge found that it didn't detect that a now-former employee hid numerous appeals without submitting them to the court for consideration.
The ruling Tuesday said approximately 350 cases were delayed, including roughly 200 were delayed at least a year while dozens of those were delayed several years.
