A New Jersey appeals court has ruled that an attorney is entitled to unemployment benefits after her part-time job was eliminated and child care considerations kept her from accepting a full-time position.

The appeals court rejected a challenge to a decision from the Department of Labor’s Board of Review by the attorney’s former employer, Toni Belford Damiano, who heads a six-lawyer family law firm in Little Falls. Damiano asserted that benefits should be withheld because the former employee, Nicole Casciola, failed to seek full-time child care.