Your professional license is your livelihood, but it doesn’t get threatened just out of the blue. When you discover your professional license is under investigation, it can result in suspension, or worse, revocation that means you can’t work in the field you trained to work in. It can be devastating, but typically it doesn’t come without warning. There are a number of events that, if discovered, could trigger an investigation at any time.
Events that can put your professional license at risk include:
- Failure to follow proper narcotic prescription procedure
- Over-prescription of narcotics
- Mental health issues that affect work performance
- Physical health issues that affect work performance
- Criminal convictions that can have an effect on your work performance (DWI, fraud, assault, ect)
- Neglect of patients
- Failure to meet documentation standards
- Fraudulent billing
- Failing to appropriately assess a client’s needs
- Departure from standard care practices of your field
- False advertising
- Revealing privileged information
- Boundary violation between you and the patient
- Failure to pay child support or student loan debts
- Practicing beyond the scope of your professional license field (a psychologist can’t stitch a wound, ect)
- Being fired from your job for any of the above or other valid causes
If you have been engaged in any of these events, you should expect an investigation at any time. In some cases, there may be no merit for punishment against your license, but the investigation is to merely make sure that there is no wrongdoing that would result in a need for punishment. This is frustrating because a notice of investigation is terrifying and it can leave you confused if you aren’t actually sure that you did anything wrong.
ARE LICENSE INVESTIGATIONS CONFIDENTIAL?
If your license is under investigation, you may worry if the sheer knowledge of an investigation may affect your career. In these professional careers, even a word of investigation can affect your reputation which is important in all licensed fields. However, in Minnesota, the investigation period is confidential. The only people that will know about the investigation outside of you and the licensing board are the people that you tell about it. The only time the allegations against you will be made public is when disciplinary action is issued out. This means that if no disciplinary action is issued, no one need ever know that there was an investigation.
WHAT TO DO WHEN UNDER INVESTIGATION?
When your license is under investigation of alleged activity, you will receive a notification of it. Once this has happened, you only have relatively short period to respond to it, and a response should be given. This investigation isn’t just going to go away, even if you have done nothing wrong you still want to act in your defense. Before issuing a response, you should contact and consult a lawyer skilled in professional licensing issues. They will guide on how to respond to the notification and what steps you should do next.
Choosing the right lawyer can work wonders for the defense of your professional license. They will examine the issue and help you gather evidence that will help defend and preserve what is essentially your livelihood so you can keep working in the field that you are trained for.
If your professional license is under investigation and you are worried that it may be suspended or revoked, contact us today. The Speas Law Firm can help work with you to keep your license intact and limit the disciplinary action against it if you did make a mistake. You need your professional license to continue working, and we want to help you keep doing the job that you love.