California License Law Blog : California License Lawyer & Attorney : Fredrick M. Ray Law Firm : Professional Licensing Revocation & Suspension : CA License Law Blog

Many professionals may think that the agency that licenses them is on their side. They are so wrong. The primary goal of a California license agency is public protection. Whether the Medical Board, Department of Insurance or the Chiropractic Board, these agencies impose more regulations and seek to strictly enforce discipline against their licensees.

The equalizers in this process, who counterbalance the awesome power of the Boards, Bureas and Departments, are the administrative law judges, the Superior Court, and most importantly, the attorneys who appear before them. The rules are relatively simple. Each licensee is constitutionally entitled to due process, meaning simply notice and an opportunity to be heard. The agency cannot punish, but instead only protect the public. The agency must follow its own rules and treat everyone fairly. Violations of these rules will lead to successful appeals before the Superior Court and higher courts.

In a recent case, we succeeded in getting an order of license revocation overturned. The licensee had gone to a hearing without an attorney (regrettable, and unfortunately common these days). The hearing had, of course, gone badly, and his license was revoked. Luckily for the licenseholder, the Department of Insurance violated the rules of due process, and, even more fortunately, he came to me while we could do something about it. After eight months of fighting in court with the Department, the decision was overturned and the license was restored.

Most law is based upon relatively simple rules which anyone can grasp. The lawyer's job - and what all lawyers must demonstrate to pass the bar - is applying the law to the facts of a specific case to make effective legal arguments. The more experience the lawyer has in a specific area of law, the more insightful the lawyer becomes at applying facts to the law.

It is fortunate that even with the awesome power the licensing agencies have over their licensees, with encouragement from an attorney many judges and courts will stand up to the agencies.

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For California's three million-plus licensed professionals, the name of the game is to stay off their licensing agency's radar screen. If you run into a problem, you want to make it go away, or at worst, suffer as little damage as possible. Here are some tips:

1) Get Out of a Problem Workplace: Many license problems arise from reporting by employers to licensing agencies, and can come from spiteful employers and arise from employee conflicts. If you have a bad feeling, get out before you are the subject of a complaint.

2) Solve Your Personal Problems Before They Become License Problems: Alcohol and drug abuse, followed by physical and mental issues, can trigger serious safety concerns for a licensing agency. Seek prompt treatment so that your personal issue doesn't become a public safety concern that causes the loss of your license.

3) Take Great Care of Your Customers (or Patients, or Clients): When you are wrongly accused of course defend yourself, but if you have made a mistake, fix it, if the customer deserves a refund, make it, if an apology is due, give it. Hurt feelings, refusal to make an account adjustment or rudeness can trigger a license discipline nightmare.

4) Be Honest with Your Licensing Agency: If you are caught in a lie and shatter the trust placed in you by your licensing agency, the lie will almost always overshadow the behavior you wanted to cover up. Most licensing agencies are poorly staffed and rely upon the honesty of licensees when they make an inquiry or do an inspection. Betraying this trust can cost you your license.

5) Keep Your Address Information Up to Date: If your licensing agency has a problem and can't reach you, they may assume your guilt or never get your side of the story. You could be disciplined or lose your license and not even know it! A license hanging on a wall means nothing if, unbeknownst to you, the license has expired or has been revoked.

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The California Medical Board’s Diversion Program ended June 30, 2008, bringing to a close an important option for getting physicians treatment for substance abuse without creating a record of public discipline that leaves most careers in ruins. 

For those physicians who remained in the Diversion Program as of June 30^th, they were placed into two groups: those who would be discharged early from Diversion thanks to their success, and those who would remain “in diversion” supervised by the enforcement arm of the Medical Board of California. For new cases, the Diversion option no longer exists.

The California Medical Board’s Diversion Program could never adequately satisfy the concerns of its critics. A certain portion of the community felt that the program helped shield addicted physicians from public discipline thereby putting the public at risk. On the other hand, the Diversion Program’s resources were so limited that some participants received inadequate treatment and supervision for their addiction, which would lead to positive drug tests and other violations. Such violations created a predicament for the program, because the program was, by its very nature, designed to treat addicted physicians and not to throw them to the wolves by sending them off for formal Board discipline. Nevertheless, the program had to draw the line and punish some physicians with formal discipline. In summary, the program was too lax for some, inadequate for others, and for some others fundamentally punitive in nature, contradicting its stated mission.

California physicians now must proactively seek confidential help for their addictions. Once the Board is involved, the Board, by its mandate, must “protect” the general public by seeking public discipline if warranted. Such disciplinary actions can be career-ending. A physician’s career, as seen through the eyes of this licensing attorney, is a house of cards, those cards being a myriad of licenses, certifications and privileges from boards, hospitals, associations and insurers. One black mark can place each and every license, certification and privilege in jeopardy.

It is, therefore, absolutely critical that physicians who struggle with drug or alcohol addiction, or other mental illness, swiftly and privately seek help. There are several nationally prominent addiction treatment programs, including Hazelden Springbrook in Newberg, Oregon, and the Farley Center at Williamsburg Place in Virginia, which specialize in the treatment of physicians. Locally in southern California, Cornerstone of Southern California is a well-established and prominent program which treats professionals for drug and alcohol addictions. In this post-diversion era, a physician who wants to salvage their career by privately seeking treatment must seek effective treatment through one of these programs without delay.       

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