Washington Employment Security Commissioner Suzi LeVine speaks at a news conference in April.
Lawyers for two workers whose unemployment benefits were halted during a fraud investigation have asked the Washington state Supreme Court to force the state Employment Security Department to restart those payments as quickly as possible.
In a petition for a "writ of mandamus," filed late Friday afternoon, attorneys say Suzi LeVine, commissioner of the Employment Security Department (ESD), lacked the "express authority" to stop unemployment benefits payments while the agency investigated a massive fraud.
As a result of the fraud, which was disclosed several weeks ago and is believed to have involved an estimated $550 million to $650 million in fraudulent benefits payments, ESD paused payments to tens of thousands of claimants so it could carefully document their identities.
But that process has delayed legitimate payments to thousands of workers in Washington.
The petition, brought on behalf of workers McKeezi Barraza and Marianne White and the Unemployment Law Project, a Seattle- and Spokane-based nonprofit, contends ESD and LeVine lacked authority to suspend those payments and asks the court to direct the agency to resume them promptly. The legal action was first reported Friday by NW News Network.
"Based on ESD's failures generally, and ESD's irresponsible response to addressing the fraud activity specifically, claimants are unfairly prejudiced to their peril," the suit contends.
Attorneys at Seattle-based Sheridan Law Firm, which filed the petition, said they plan to file an emergency motion next week that would ask the court to rule quickly on the petition.
An ESD spokesman did not respond to a request late Friday for comment about the petition.
