Facts: Our client, TF, hired us to defend him against a complaint filed with the Board by a quasi-governmental entity alleging he had violated minimum professional standards for real estate appraisers. He faced harm to his professional reputation, his ability to continue receiving work from various appraisal management companies and lenders, potential disciplinary action from the Board and a negative impact on his livelihood all due to the false complaint allegations.
Outcome: The Firm collected and evaluated the client’s work file documentation, and appraisal report needed to fight back against the illegitimate allegations. We also assessed the written report prepared by the client’s consulting expert. We advocated aggressively on the client’s behalf to demonstrate that the complaint had legal deficiencies that supported dismissal and had no merit because it lacked adequate evidence of any violations of professional standards. We demonstrated why the client had not violated the law and why the complaint needed to be immediately dismissed without further Board action. After the Board completed an investigation, the investigator agreed the matter lacked any merit, and needed to be dismissed. The Board dismissed our client’s complaint with a non-disciplinary warning letter. The Board took no action against his license, leaving his professional reputation and livelihood intact.