I lost the unemployment battle :(

[Retromancer]

In some ways what is going to happen to your work history is worse than the loss of unemployment. The denial of unemployment is just the frosting on the sh*t cake. However many years of work you may have had at the last job has just turned into crap. In my case it was nearly 4 years of my life turned to crap. What ever good I did in peoples lives went out the window. I still have tenants -- "clients" -- from the last job come up to give me a hug. They would happily give me a good reference. Unfortunately their opinion doesn't matter.

Yes employers face potential lawsuits if they say more than when you worked at their firm. There however is no downside if they answer that you are ineligible for rehire. A cold recital of dates worked coupled with a statement that they would not rehire you is all it takes to torpedo your employment chances.