Oscar Solórzano believes he is owed more than $9,000 in back unemployment benefits. The Georgia Department of Labor disagrees.
Department officials have twice concluded that Solórzano did not qualify for unemployment benefits after he was fired last year as a machine operator at carpet manufacturer Mohawk Industries Inc. in Dalton, Ga. That would have been the end of the matter had Solórzano not been referred to the Georgia Legal Services Program and attorney Currey Hitchens, who specializes in representing Spanish speakers. “I would have given up,” Solórzano said through an interpreter. “I couldn’t do this by myself.”
