When you are charged with an offense as a professional license holder, a guilty verdict could have severe consequences on your reputation and career. You risk having your license suspended or revoked. You have invested a significant amount of time and financial resources in obtaining your professional permit, and you do not want to risk losing it due to a conviction. You do not want to overlook the consequences associated with a criminal conviction, which is why, if you are a state licensee who faces criminal charges, you should retain the services of a competent license defense attorney for criminal defense.
At the Los Angeles License Attorney, we understand the consequences of an unfavorable court verdict on your professional permit. Additionally, our attorneys are well-versed in the administrative proceeding process and will be by your side during the hearing. We will defend the criminal case and the formal complaint against your professional license to ensure you retain the license you sacrificed a lot to obtain.
Instances When a Crime Can Lead to Professional Discipline
Not all criminal convictions result in professional discipline. However, any criminal conviction, whether an infraction, misdemeanor, or felony, can lead to a tarnished professional reputation. Prospective employers might discriminate against you despite meeting the relevant qualifications because of your criminal record.
The mission of California’s professional regulatory agencies is to protect the public, who are the consumers of various services provided by professionals. Therefore, where they have a reason to believe that a particular conviction or criminal record reflects poorly on your capacity to provide quality and uncompromised services per the profession’s ethical and safety standards, they can take disciplinary action. Nevertheless, there must exist a substantial relationship between your crime and your profession.
For instance, if you are a certified public accountant, the CBA will take disciplinary action if you are convicted of fraud, bribery, money laundering, or embezzlement. This is because your career and the crime are connected.
Nevertheless, prosecutors could amplify an offense to interpret it as substantially related to your case, even when it is not. It is at this point that you must bring in a license defense attorney who understands the rules of your practice to argue in your defense and prevent the charge amplification. Your attorney, unlike your licensing board, has your best interests and will work tirelessly to avoid or mitigate the effects of a conviction and professional discipline.
During the administrative proceedings or in the licensing board’s private investigations, the board considers several factors to determine whether to impose professional discipline. These factors are:
Your Crime’s Gravity or Classification
California categorizes crimes as infractions, misdemeanors, and felonies. A guilty verdict for any of these offenses can trigger disciplinary action from the relevant licensing board. Nevertheless, you can receive an interim license suspension even before a conviction if you have been charged with a grave offense. The graver the offense, the more stringent the disciplinary measures.
Charge Status
Another factor that determines whether the relevant board will take disciplinary action is the charge status. When police arrest you for a violation, but the prosecutor fails to file formal charges for one reason or another, your licensing agency is unlikely to initiate a disciplinary process.
Your Crime’s Nature
Regulatory agencies or professional licensing boards consider the unique nature of your offense when determining disciplinary measures. When convicted of a crime of moral turpitude, such as theft, a sex crime, or fraud, they will take harsher disciplinary measures. Moral turpitude offenses are those that depict the offender as vile, morally deprived, or reckless. Your professional discipline will be more stringent than that of another individual who engages in a regulatory contravention. Nevertheless, even regulatory breaches can trigger disciplinary action.
The Case’s Relevance to your Profession
When your crime has a direct or substantial relationship to your career or raises doubts about your ethics or competency, your board will instigate disciplinary action.
The Manner in Which the Court Resolved the Case
The court resolves criminal cases in various ways, and the manner of resolution will affect your professional discipline. The typical resolutions to criminal cases include:
- Guilty pleas
- Trial convictions by a bench or jury
- Jail or probation sentence
- Charge or sentence reduction contingent on mitigating circumstances
- A diversion program or sentencing instead of the standard penalties
- Deferred entry of judgment (DEJ), where the court imposes conditions to abide by for a particular duration instead of a formal conviction and sentencing.
- Charge dismissal if the prosecutor cannot substantiate the charges or prove them beyond a reasonable doubt.
- The court found you not guilty after a trial
The disciplinary action by your board will depend on the resolution of the charge. For example, when your case was concluded through a conviction in a trial, the board will take harsher disciplinary measures than those of another professional whose charges were dropped after a successful completion of a DEJ.
The Rehabilitative Measures you Have Taken
When you have a criminal record for drunk or drugged driving, the board will be lenient when imposing disciplinary measures if you have taken measures to rehabilitate, like enrolling and completing a DUI school or drug treatment program. These efforts show that you have changed or are willing to change and can persuade the board to take less stringent disciplinary action.
The Duration you Have Practiced Without a Formal Complaint or Professional Discipline
The board will look at the years you have been practicing in your profession without a violation before the current charge or conviction. If you have maintained a clean record throughout, the board will be more lenient when imposing professional discipline. Additionally, if your criminal record includes a conviction that occurred ten years ago, the board will impose a lesser punishment than if the record is for a recent conviction.
Your Professional License Type
Your permit type and the relevant regulatory or licensing agency also determine the disciplinary action. Medical licensing boards are more strict with their members because the lives and health of people depend on them. The same case applies to those in the legal profession. Board members are held to a higher standard, and any conviction, or sometimes even a charge alone, can trigger severe disciplinary measures, such as permit suspension or revocation.
Possible Disciplinary Measures
A criminal conviction or proceeding can instigate various disciplinary actions by your board. Depending on the case’s facts and severity, the board can wait for a sentence before imposing punishment or can place an interim suspension on the permit, preventing you from offering your services until the court renders a decision on the ongoing case. At other times, they may conduct independent investigations to establish the facts of the accusations against you. If the court finds the complaint against you is true, the possible disciplinary measures they will impose include:
- A private admonition or censure. The warning letter remains private, so it does not hurt your reputation.
- A public citation or reprimand. A reprimand is made public, allowing potential clients and employers to see it, which significantly damages your reputation.
The harshest disciplinary measure you can face because of a criminal conviction is permit suspension or revocation. A suspension is the temporary withdrawal of your professional license, barring you from practicing for a given duration. Some suspensions only last for a very short duration, after which the board places your license on probation. This allows you to practice, but under strict conditions. After the probationary term, the board reinstates the permit. Another form of license suspension is the interim one, which occurs after a serious complaint has been made. The board imposes this suspension pending private investigations or case conclusion, although your license attorney can challenge the decision.
Professional license revocation means indefinite termination of your permit. The board will cancel your license, prompting you to start fresh in the same or a different industry or practice. If the board terminates your license, the cancellation is permanent. Licensing boards rarely revoke licenses, and if they do, you must start the reapplication process. The most severe punishment a professional license holder can face is the revocation of their permit.
Do not ignore the impact of a criminal charge on your lifetime investment, which is your career, which could go down the drain. Contact an experienced license defense lawyer to explain the criminal case and defend you in disciplinary proceedings to prevent an adverse outcome. Your attorney will present mitigating circumstances to persuade the board to impose lenient penalties or dismiss the complaint.
Sources of Criminal Charges or Convictions Information
A professional licensee must notify the relevant board of an arrest, formal charge, or conviction within the timeline provided in the rules and regulations. Self-reporting is encouraged because if you do not volunteer the information, the board will still receive the information from the court or law enforcement, and this will not reflect well on you. If you do not know the policies of self-reporting in your profession, you should contact the board for the details. Your attorney can also obtain this information for you.
Additionally, your licensing agency closely monitors the DOJ records for arrests, citations, official charges, and convictions. When they notice this information, they will send a discovery notice requiring you to provide more details about the incident in question.
Finally, the court or law enforcement agency can notify the board of the arrest, official charge, or conviction.
You must cooperate with the board during inquiries, but with the guidance of your license attorney, so that you do not divulge self-incriminating information that the board will use against you.
Protecting Your License From a Criminal Charge
Securing an acquittal or case dismissal in your criminal charge is critical. However, when the charge has a direct relationship with your professional license, you should focus on winning both the criminal case and the administrative proceeding to protect your license.
You must take the board hearing seriously, regardless of the verdict in the criminal case. If you already have a criminal conviction record, an attorney can help you request an administrative hearing to present your case and evidence. If the criminal court found you innocent or acquitted you of the charges, your attorney can persuade the board to avoid the hearing or drop the formal complaint entirely.
However, when the board insists on the hearing, your attorney can help you prepare sufficiently by gathering evidence, mitigating factors, and crafting arguments for a fair verdict. If you are convicted in court, it is sufficient proof that the accusations against you are true. Therefore, your attorney will focus on reducing the severity of the punishment the board will impose by presenting circumstances that mitigate it.
The common mitigating factors that could protect your permit from a criminal case are:
- Volunteering information about the arrest, charge, or conviction to the board
- Citing a clean criminal record
- Cooperating with board investigators
- Taking early rehabilitative measures
- Proving the absence of actual injuries on the victim
Other legal measures that can help save the case are:
- Pre-filing a letter of litigation to the District Attorney to deter official lodging of criminal charges
- Delaying the reporting using legal or ethical loopholes while you negotiate a favorable plea deal
- If a conviction is inevitable, negotiate a DEJ or alternative sentencing to avoid jail, enabling you to continue practicing.
- Negotiate a short criminal probationary term because the term will be equal to the license probation. The attorney must also negotiate favorable probationary terms tailored to ensure the safety of the public and consumers of your services. Reasonable probationary conditions give the board confidence you will not engage in a violation while on license probation. If the terms were lenient, the board might be concerned about the likelihood of another breach, which could minimize your chances of retaining the permit.
Handling Prior Convictions
All is not lost even when you lose your criminal case and end up with a conviction. Your attorney can explore post-conviction relief options like expungement or case dismissal, record sealing, rehabilitation certificates, or a governor’s pardon to reinstate your license.
Seasoned license defense attorneys understand various strategies to defend your license in and out of court. Therefore, when you are charged with any crime with a substantial relationship to your license or have a prior criminal record, find a competent lawyer to protect your reputation and livelihood.
Find a Seasoned Professional License Defense Attorney Near Me
Your licensing board’s decision on professional discipline is independent from that of a continuing criminal case. However, the court’s verdict can influence the board’s disciplinary action. Therefore, when you face a criminal charge that can adversely affect your license, you need a competent license attorney for criminal defense and the board hearing.
At the Los Angeles License Attorney, we are dedicated to protecting your license in criminal cases and formal claims. Call us at 424-554-1140 to start working on your criminal defense.
