Sanctions for violating rules and laws that apply to your profession can result in the suspension of your professional license. In some cases, your licensing board or agency even can temporarily suspend your professional license before a hearing is held. When you are facing a disciplinary complaint, consulting a professional license defense lawyer to defend your license can be crucial to successfully fighting against misconduct allegations and reaching a positive outcome in your case.
Our experienced professional license defense attorneys at Bertolino LLP know how important it is to continue working in your chosen field. Therefore, we will advocate on your behalf to put you in the best possible position to protect your license and career and resolve your case in your favor. Together, we will work to help you maintain your license and professional future. Call us at (512) 980-3751 or contact us online.
Temporary or Emergency Suspensions of Professional Licenses
Many professional licensing boards or agencies can move to suspend professional licenses on a temporary or emergency basis if they have cause to believe that continued practice by the individual could cause an imminent threat to the public. In routine license suspension cases, licensees are entitled to due process protections, such as notice of the allegations against them and a hearing before the licensing agency, before any suspension occurs. However, in emergency situations where public safety is stake, most licensing boards can issue an emergency or temporary suspension without notice or a hearing. Nonetheless, when an agency issues an emergency or temporary license suspension, it typically must give notice to the licensee and schedule an immediate hearing.
The Texas Board of Nursing
For instance, the Texas Board of Nursing (BON) can issue a temporary suspension of a nursing license without notice. Under Tex. Occ. Code §301.455, the BON can temporarily suspend or restrict a nursing license if a majority of the BON or a designated three-member committee of BON members determines, based on the evidence provided, that continued practice by the licensee would “constitute a continuing and imminent threat to the public welfare.”
To temporarily suspend a nurse’s license without notice, the BON must initiate proceedings for an immediate hearing before State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) simultaneously with the temporary license suspension or restriction. SOAH must hold a preliminary hearing not more than 17 days after the date of the temporary suspension or restriction to determine whether probable cause exists that a continuing and imminent threat to the public welfare continues to exist. Furthermore, the SOAH must hold a final hearing not more than 61 days after the date of the temporary suspension or restriction.
The Texas Medical Board
The Texas Medical Board (TMB) also can hold a hearing without notice to determine whether to temporarily suspend or restrict a physician’s license under 22 Tex. Admin. Code § 187.55. During the hearing, a three-member panel of the TMB decides whether allowing the physician to practice would pose a “continuing threat to the public welfare,” which is defined as a “real danger to the health of a physician’s patients or the public caused through the physician’s lack of competence, impaired status, or failure of care adequately for the physician’s patients.” 22 Tex. Admin. Code § 187.57(c). In making this determination, the TMB must find that the physician’s continued practice poses an actual risk of injury to others based on their actions or inaction.
If the TMB panel temporarily suspends or restricts a physician’s license without notice, it must give immediate notice of the suspension or restriction to the physician. Furthermore, it must schedule a hearing on the temporary suspension on the earliest possible date. The physician must have at least ten days’ notice of the hearing. 3 Tex. Occ. Code § 164.059(c).
Following the hearing, if the TMB panel affirms the license suspension or restriction, the TMB shall schedule an informal compliance meeting to be held as soon as possible. If the physician cannot show compliance at the informal compliance meeting, the TMB must file a formal complaint as soon as possible.
However, if after the hearing the TMB decides that the temporary suspension or restriction is unwarranted, the facts that served as the basis for the temporary suspension or restriction cannot be used as the sole basis for a future temporary suspension or restriction proceeding.
The Texas State Board of Pharmacy
Tex. Occ. Code §565.059 allows the Texas State Board of Pharmacy (TSBP), to temporarily suspend or restrict a pharmacist or pharmacy license. The president of the TSBP must appoint a three-person disciplinary panel to determine whether a pharmacist’s license should be temporarily suspended or restricted. The panel may temporarily suspend or restrict the license either:
- After a hearing conducted by the panel after the 10th day after the date notice of the hearing is provided to the license holder; or
- Without notice or hearing if, at the time the suspension or restriction is ordered, a hearing before the panel is scheduled to be held not later than the 14th day after the date of the temporary suspension or restriction to determine whether the suspension or restriction should be continued.
If the panel temporarily suspends or restricts the pharmacist’s license, the TSBP shall initiate formal disciplinary proceedings against the pharmacist no more than 90 days after the date of the temporary suspension or restriction. The State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) also must hold a contested case hearing within that timeframe. Failure of SOAH to hold a hearing within this timeframe will result in the suspension or restriction of the pharmacist’s license being automatically lifted.
We Will Represent You in Your Professional License Disciplinary Proceedings
We know how critical it is for you to continue working in the career that you have worked so hard to establish. Our goal is to help you defend yourself against complaints, disciplinary proceedings, and potentially damaging sanctions, including license suspensions, that you can face in professional license disciplinary proceedings. The experienced professional license defense lawyers at Bertolino LLP, will strive to protect your license throughout your disciplinary proceedings. Call us at (512) 980-3751 or contact us online.
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