On October 29, 2013, HR.BLR.com reported a decision of the Kentucky Supreme Court that a DUI arrest, even without a conviction, is enough to disqualify an employee arrested for DUI from unemployment benefits. Most states require you to be entitled to unemployment benefits that you be fired for no fault of your own. So unless you break a known rule or order, you can not be fired without unemployment. What makes this case different is that the company claimed the employee was fired because he was uninsured yet he had not been convicted and the DUI was not on his driving record. The Court rejected the argument that the employer had to produce a copy of the insurance policy to prove that an arrest was enough to render the employee uninsurable under the substantial evidence standard and rejected that the employer had to prove willfulness or bad motive, so much for the presumption of innocence.
-Author: George Creal