Dietitians serve the people of Texas with their high level of knowledge on food issues, counseling citizens on how to lead healthy lifestyles, and reach health goals using what they eat. These professionals are highly trained going through an education program in dietetics, followed by their dietetic internship, then the Texas jurisprudence examination, and, at long last, licensure as an RD in Texas. So, it can be a highly distressing situation for them to find a complaint lodged against their professional license that puts their reputation, career, and livelihood at risk.
The organization in charge of licensing and maintaining licenses for dietitians in Texas is the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (also known as TDLR). This Department is a bureaucratic juggernaut in the Texas system of professional licensure—covering around 40 professions of vastly different sorts, from barbers to electricians to licensed breeders of dogs. And dietitians, somehow, are also on the list. This alone should be enough to display that the purpose of the Department is not to root for dietitians when they are faced with a complaint.
Indeed, the very purpose of TDLR is for the protection of the public as against the professionals it licenses. It is prohibited by law to even permit any members of its governing board and policy-making body to engage in any of the occupations or businesses that it regulates. Its purpose is prosecutorial. A dietitian who receives notice of a complaint should know that the Department has already reviewed the complaint to determine that the allegations therein pass its threshold for being within the Department’s jurisdiction to regulate and punish and that there is enough evidence to support further investigation.
The letter notifying the dietitian of this complaint generally requests a response. This response is made in the form of a letter, which, composed properly, may succeed in limiting the scope of the investigation to follow—and even, in some instances, of getting the case dismissed. It is essential that the dietitian not take this letter alone. Instead, they should enlist the aid of an experienced professional license defense attorney to craft this letter on their behalf.
We here at BERTOLINO LLP can help. We are experienced professional license defense attorneys, and we know how to navigate the complaint process. We are skilled at assisting dietitians in doing everything that can be done to ensure the most favorable possible outcome to their cases.
With offices in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio, we serve clients all over the state. Contact us today or call (512) 476-5757 and schedule a case evaluation.
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