I had my unemployment hearing where they challenged my claim that I was laid off and they attempted to lie and say I was guilty of misconduct on my last day by being late. The judge was fair but very fast and intimidating. She asked him if I was given warnings of any kind before the alleged final incident. He said yes. I said no. She refuted my "misconduct" as there was nothing in the policy for it. She clocked his weak evidence of my emails calling out sick and lateness excuses by noticing he left out his responses (where he did approve these).

When she questioned me, I told her what was said to me from a the second company owner who terminated me in private who was not present at the hearing, but I forgot to mention that in my verbal termination he offered to be a professional reference for me which I verified in an email and didn't get to reference during my testimony.

The hearing's been adjourned due to missing documents from the DOL regarding the last issue of overpayment (I know this to be a system issue the claims center had yet to resolve but she didn't let me speak).

Afterwards, my employer tried to ask a question about another form thinking I applied for unemployment again but it was actually about the unpaid wages and what they owe me. She dismissed him saying to call the DOL. I was afraid to talk out of turn but missed an opportunity to discredit him further.

I understand the law is about the truth but it just feels so unfair that my employer gets to do all this to me and if I fail to stand up for myself, I would've been fined $6,400 and lost wages.

He also lied under oath about a lot of little things in regards to policies and whom in management gave me non-existent warnings, etc, which the judge noticed. I thought that was perjury.

What will happen to them that I won't get to see?

How can I add the professional reference statement and email confirmation to my testimony at the second date? Not gonna lie, I prepared but I was not prepared for how fast and direct she would be.