Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Timeliness Metrics topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
California Unemployment Appeals Board reports faster case processing, meets DOL timeliness standards
Summary
At its April 15 meeting in Sacramento, the board highlighted improved timeliness: field case-aging averaged 24.2 days and appellate operations met multiple Department of Labor metrics. Board members praised staff while stressing the need to preserve due process as audits proceed.
Vice Chair Kent Manning opened the California Unemployment Appeals Board meeting on April 15 in Sacramento and the board spent much of the session highlighting faster processing times and improved case backlogs.
"In March the field operations case aging days were 24.2," Vice Chair Kent Manning said, noting that figure is below the Department of Labor standard of 30 days. He also noted that "field operations closed in March 18,767 cases and appellate operations closed 1,247 cases in the month of March." The board characterized March as a strong month and the close of the Department of Labor reporting year.
Michael Coutri, the board's chief administrative law judge and executive director, told members that daily appeal intake has remained at a low single-digit percentage compared with recent months and that the agency's UI appeals inventory fell to just over 11,000 cases — "the lowest unemployment insurance appeals inventory since 2020," he said. Coutri emphasized the seven-month trend of lower incoming appeals and framed the reduced case-aging as the result of sustained operational changes.
Rebecca Bach, supervising administrative law judge for appellate operations, reported that for the year ending March 31, 2026 the office met Department of Labor benchmarks for second-level cases: "51.1% of our cases in 45 days and 84.4% of our cases within 75 days," and an average case aging at second level of 26.7 days. She said those results reflect coordinated work between field and appellate offices.
Board members praised staff but repeatedly underscored the need to balance speed with accuracy. "We're not here just to approve cases quickly," Member Ang said. "We're here to make sure that the decision is the right one." Member Roth, who described himself as "a metrics guy," thanked staff for the "high quality of the legal analysis" produced by judges and analysts.
Members also discussed a Department of Labor quality audit that had been announced publicly. Coutri described that audit as a routine, sample-based review of claim handling aimed at evaluating timeliness and quality. "We're not part of that audit" in the first phase, he said, but added the agency would cooperate if asked and that any formal findings would be shared when available.
Votes at a glance - Approve minutes of March 11, 2026 meeting: motion made, seconded, and approved (members present voted in favor).
