A lawsuit against the Alabama Department of Labor over its mishandling of unemployment payments during COVID-19 is being appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court after a county judge dismissed the case.

“Plaintiffs request (the Secretary of the Alabama Department of Labor) timely process their unemployment applications, make eligibility determinations, provide adequate notice before denying or terminating benefits, schedule appeal hearings, and redress deprivations of claimants’ rights,” states the appeal submitted to the state supreme court on Monday.

The lawsuit, brought by Legal Services Alabama, alleged the department was too slow in processing applications and decision appeals for unemployment during the pandemic. The suit asked the court to make the department to improve.

“We believe that the district court was wrong to dismiss, and that the caselaw establishes a right to sue a state for injunctive relief both when the state is violating the US Constitution and when it is violating a federal statute,” said Larry Gardella, an attorney for Legal Services Alabama.

In May Montgomery County Judge James Anderson dismissed the lawsuit, brought against Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington after the state argued Washington was protected by sovereign immunity. In June, Alabama Legal Services asked the judge to reconsider his decision and in August he upheld his decision to dismiss the case.

“We are hopeful that this issue will finally be put to rest and that ADOL can spend more of its time working to serve the people of Alabama,” said Tara Hutchinson, a spokesperson for the department, following the judge’s decision in August.

The Alabama Department of Labor did not respond to requests for comment about Monday’s appeal.

As of February, Alabama had received but not processed at least 82,262 appeals about unemployment and overpayment decisions, according to a department report sent to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Last year Alabama demanded that some Alabamians who were given unemployment benefits repay thousands of dollars due to overpayments that were the result of errors by the agency, employers, or beneficiaries. The state reported overpaying $164 million in unemployment in 2020 and 2021.

Following an AL.com report about the overpayments in July, Gov. Kay Ivey called the situation unacceptable and said the state must fix the “outrageous backlog.”

The U.S. Department of Labor created a process for states to forgive the federal unemployment dollars that were overpaid during COVID-19 and several states have applied for waivers and are offering broad forgiveness to residents.

In September, the Alabama Department of Labor told AL.com it is considering asking for such a waiver, but it is not certain whether the department has the capacity to identify the instances where forgiveness would be justified.

“We are actively working with our software developers to identify other specific pandemic-related overpayments that are permitted to be waived within the guidelines established by U.S. Department of Labor,” said spokesperson Tara Hutchinson.

As of last month, the department had identified 8,700 people who had received overpayment notices in error, often for thousands of dollars. The department notified those beneficiaries that they can request some of their debt be forgiven.