Issue: Navigating a license investigation The best conceivable outcome from an investigation of your professional license is your case is closed with zero findings of alleged misconduct and no discipline. Administrative investigations for most of California’s professional licensing boards are conducted by investigators from the Department of Consumer Affairs. These...
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Issue: Regulating new forms of advertising Increasing numbers of attorneys are using blogs to post brief articles or comments on a variety of subjects online, the State Bar of California's professional responsibility committee says. The blogs "run the gamut from those having nothing to do with the legal profession, to...
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Issue: Clarity of wording in official orders A federal court in Colorado issued a decision March 17 allowing a suit brought by a nurse against the state's nursing board to continue on the grounds that the stipulation order she signed was confusingly titled. The court said this fact raised the...
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ARMED WITH NEW TASK FORCE AND WEBSITE, FTC CHAIR VOWS LIBERTARIAN APPROACH TO OCCUPATIONAL LICENSING
Issue: Deregulation of occupations Maureen Ohlhausen, acting chair of the Federal Trade Commission, announced March 16 the creation of the Economic Liberty Task Force, which will identify "problematic licensing laws" and encourage state officials to review onerous licensing requirements. Although the task force is mostly meant as an advisory resource...
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Issue: "Good moral character" standards for entry into occupations Policy development groups on both the left and the right have stepped up pressure on state legislators this year to restrict many licensing boards from using past criminal convictions to deny applicants a license. On the right, the lobbying group ALEC...
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Issue: Limits of courts' standard of review of board actions The Court of Appeals of Nevada, in a January 30 decision, rejected the appeal of an alcohol and substance abuse counselor who had been enjoined from using psychological testing and diagnosis on his patients (Hopper v. Board of Psychological Examiners)....
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LICENSE APPLICANTS COULD AVOID SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES TO DODGE APPLICATION QUESTIONS, SURVEY FINDS A large percentage of female physicians who answered a survey published in General Hospital Psychiatry in September said they had felt they might qualify for a diagnosis of mental illness but had avoided treatment...
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California Nurse License Defense Lawyer The California Board of Registered Nursing was the target of a critical review released December 13 by the state auditor, which accused the board of undue delays in its complaint handling and called for an action plan to resolve its deficiencies. The audit recommended that...
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California Osteopathic Medical Board Lawyers An appellate court in Washington State rejected the argument of a physician that the state's osteopathic medical board had violated his constitutional privilege against self-incrimination and protection against unreasonable search and seizure by ordering him to produce prescription records and by obtaining other prescription records...
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The state medical board was within its authority to reject taking jurisdiction of a couple's complaint that a group of privately-contracted emergency room physicians engaged in "balance billing," the California Court of Appeal, First District, Division 4, held September 26 (Leon v. Medical Board of California). Under balance billing, emergency...
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