Unemployement woes

I just have to say that Minnesota must have the dumbest people working at the unemployment office ever (no offense if you work there but I am seriously frustrated).  My hubby had to quit his job in May per doctor's orders. At 40 he had severe osteoarthritis in his hips and it was so bad he would periodically take a step and fall to the ground.  We knew that he would eventually need hip replacement surgery but it had deteriorated so bad his hip socket was crumbling, there was bone on bone in the joint and he was falling because the ball would come out of what was left in the cup. One look at the x-rays and he was put on a no work restriction by his doctor. He was an auto mechanic, working for a small business (1 owner and 3 workers) and had no type of disability insurance. It was questionable if he would ever be able to go back to his line of work once his surgeries would be complete.

He gave his employer notice that he could no longer work there so they could find someone else. According to the unemployment webiste you can collect if you have illness or injury that prohibits you from doing employment. After spending several week submitting paperwork over and over we received a letter stating that unless he is able to look for employment he can't collect. We interpreted that as when his surgery is done and he is cleared by his doctor to work he can then collect until he is able to find another job.  That is the case but we have 3 issues with them and one of them was that he quit his job. They are telling us that since he quit and didn't give his employer opportunity to give him alternate arrangement he can't collect. Apparently a doctor's note that he is not allowed to work is not OK? With such a small shop there is nothing else he could have done. He was in so much pain he spent the time until his surgery on pain killers.  Not only that - he missed the appeal period and we can try to file a late appeal but they are saying good luck with that. Yet had we appealed in June they wouldn't have bothered to look at it since he couldn't look for work.

I am so frustrated and annoyed. I would like to handle the appeal process ourself and not have to involve a lawyer but I am not sure how easy that will be.