The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry and other statewide business groups are fighting to maintain a recently enacted law allowing businesses to use non-attorneys in unemployment compensation hearings.
Act 5 of 2005, signed into law in June by Gov. Edward G. Rendell, was enacted after the Commonwealth Court ruled in Harkness v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 867 A.2d 728 (Pa. Commw. 2005), that businesses must be represented by attorneys in UC cases. Many smaller businesses use non-attorney agents to represent them in such cases to save time and money.
