Getting Disability or Unemployment After Being Laid Off from Work
My question involves an injury that occurred in the state of: CA
Hello, I'm unsure of where to post this question but please direct me to the right forum.
1. I met with an auto accident on April 6th, causing my right arm fracture. I was turning left cautiously but an oncoming pickup truck hit my car causing car to be totaled, and fracture. The guy driving the truck does not carry a drivers license or insurance. Police report was filed. My insurance has since paid for loss of car but do I have a legal recourse to go after the pickup driver for accident ?
2. Accident happened while I was returning from work. So,I applied for short term disability. Now, the company that I was working for has downsized and laid off a team of 12 members on April 25th. Can I still get short term disability as I'm not employed with them anymore ?
3. The company advised me to apply for unemployment. The market is tough and not many jobs are available in my area of expertise.
Scenario 1: What if I do not get employed sooner ?
Scenario 2: I can manage expenses from my spouses' income. What if I do not intent to return to workforce ? How do I notify to stop payments for unemployment ?
Please clarify. Thanks.
Re: Traffic Accident, Injury and Layoff from Work
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sunshine21
Hello, I'm unsure of where to post this question but please direct me to the right forum.
This is as good a place as any. We all read all the forums anyway.
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sunshine21
1. I met with an auto accident on April 6th, causing my right arm fracture. I was turning left cautiously but an oncoming pickup truck hit my car causing car to be totaled, and fracture. The guy driving the truck does not carry a drivers license or insurance. Police report was filed. My insurance has since paid for loss of car but do I have a legal recourse to go after the pickup driver for accident ?
Well, you can if you want to but I don't think you'll be successful. You made a left turn in front of an oncoming vehicle and got hit. The legal presumption is that you failed to yield to the oncoming vehicle because had you yielded you wouldn't have been hit. That makes you at fault for causing the accident.
Doesn't matter that the other driver had no license or insurance.
Now, if you had witnesses who could testify, for example, that the other driver ran a red light or did something otherwise egregious you would have a chance at recovery. Without witnesses, though, you fail because of the presumption.
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sunshine21
2. Accident happened while I was returning from work. So,I applied for short term disability. Now, the company that I was working for has downsized and laid off a team of 12 members on April 25th. Can I still get short term disability as I'm not employed with them anymore ?
If it's company disability, you'll have to ask the company. If it's state disability you'll have to ask the state.
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sunshine21
3. The company advised me to apply for unemployment. The market is tough and not many jobs are available in my area of expertise.
I hope you filed the same day you were laid off. If you didn't, then file ASAP.
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sunshine21
Scenario 1: What if I do not get employed sooner ?
I don't know. I'm not a fortune teller.
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sunshine21
Scenario 2: I can manage expenses from my spouses' income. What if I do not intent to return to workforce ? How do I notify to stop payments for unemployment ?
I'm pretty sure that you can find the answer to those questions on the UI agency's website.
Re: Getting Disability or Unemployment After Being Laid Off from Work
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sunshine21
So,I applied for short term disability....
The company advised me to apply for unemployment.
If you are disabled from working, you do not qualify for unemployment. You can continue to apply for disability through your employer's coverage, or through SDI. You can apply for unemployment, but you would indicate on your Continued Claim Form, DE 4581, the weeks when you are disabled from working.
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Scenario 2: I can manage expenses from my spouses' income. What if I do not intent to return to workforce ? How do I notify to stop payments for unemployment ?
If you stop looking for work, you won't be reporting a job search to the EDD on your Continued Claim Form and your benefits will stop.
Re: Getting Disability or Unemployment After Being Laid Off from Work
Even though you are now on short term disability, you need to apply immediately for unemployment benefits. This will set up your claim based on the last five quarters of earnings from covered work. Each time the quarters change again, every three months, an earlier quarter will drop off. Wait too long to set up the claim, have too many quarters between you and the last time you worked, and there would be no unemployment claim for you to draw of of, ever, even if things worked out where you were otherwise eligible.
So file for the unemployment immediately. You will not be able to begin receiving the weekly benefits, it will just set up the claim. Filing now will set you up a claim with the state's system which will remain in place for one year from the date of filing. If at any time during this year you are released by your doctor to return to work, ( since, of course, your old company has no work for you ) you'd be able, at that time, to re-open your already filed unemployment claim and begin making the required work searches for equivalent work and drawing out the claim weekly.
In order to receive your weekly checks, you would, after each week had passed, file for the week on the Continued Claim Form mentioned above. If you decided you no longer wanted to be able, available and actively seeking work, no longer wanted to receive unemployment insurance, you would stop filing the weekly certifications for benefits and your claim would stop.
Or if you had drawn out the maximum possible number of 26 weeks, it stops anyway, no matter what you're doing or whether or not you still need it. There are no federal extensions on unemployment at this time, so 26 weeks is the max you could possibly get without returning to work and working out some more quarters of wages and being laid off through no fault of your own again.
For certain, unemployment is not a disability or a poverty/needs based program. it is available to you ONLY after you have been released by your doctor to work, and to get it you must be in the workforce and seeking other work. It is not for anyone who is disabled and cannot work, regardless of the reason. But in this situation, you do need to file the claim immediately and set it up, just to keep this option open.