The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has taken up a case that may provide it with an opportunity to determine what constitutes “self-employment” for the purposes of the Unemployment Compensation Law, which does not explicitly define the term.

The justices granted allocatur March 13 in A Special Touch v. Department of Labor & Industry to examine a single issue, as phrased by the defendant-petitioner: “Should this court exercise its supervision to provide the controlling interpretation of the phrase ‘customarily engaged in an independent business’ to define ‘employment’ in the Unemployment Compensation Law in order to resolve the inconsistent interpretations of the Commonwealth Court as to a definition that is fundamental to the administration of the [Unemployment Compensation] program and thus of significant public importance?”