Vast and environmentally diverse, the Big Sky State is filled to the brim with nursing opportunities. If that's where you practice, nothing can stop you from thriving except for severe sanctions on your professional license. Unfortunately, that's exactly what can happen if someone files an order of protection or files domestic violence charges against you.
The good news is that you don't have to look far to find a legal team with the brilliance and determination necessary to protect your license. No matter where you are in Montana, the Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team is ready to help you. Schedule a consultation now by calling their offices at 888.535.3686 or filling out this contact form.
What the Montana Board of Nursing Does with Protective Orders and Domestic Abuse Charges
Chances are that the Montana Board of Nursing won't automatically receive any notifications about your domestic abuse charge or order of protection. Nevertheless, there are a variety of situations in which it might come up, such as:
- Someone sends a written complaint to the Montana Board of Nursing to inform them about the charges and/or order of protection.
- You tell the board about the charges preemptively to appear as straightforward and trustworthy as possible, which could the board's sympathy easier to win.
- The board runs a criminal history background check on you to approve you for a new job, or to obtain or renew your nursing license. If the charges have been pending or were dismissed after being filed more than seven years ago, they won't show up in the background check. Otherwise, it's entirely possible that they will.
After getting word about the order of protection or domestic abuse charges, the Montana Board of Nursing may delve deeper into the matter by utilizing its disciplinary process.
If they found out through a written complaint, the process begins with reviewing the information to check that it seems legitimate and falls within the board's jurisdiction. Next, the board arranges for an impartial investigation, gathering all the evidence available, including witness testimonies, victim statements, documents, recordings, photographs, videos, communications, and expert opinions or analyses.
With the investigation complete, the board will organize a screening panel, which you and/or the complainant can attend. The panel isn't the same as a hearing, so you won't be able to defend yourself, but you can provide clarification on elements of the case if the panel asks you. It ends with the panel either dismissing the complaint or proposing resolutions or disciplinary measures to close it out.
You'll have the option of agreeing to the board's proposal, but if you're dissatisfied, you can contest the results instead. This prompts the board to schedule a formal hearing before an adjudication panel. That's your chance to present arguments or evidence that the screening panel hadn't received or considered. The adjudication panel will make a final decision on your case based on how the hearing goes. Although the Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team can assist you through each step of the disciplinary process up to this point, the hearing may be the most crucial time to have them present to speak on your behalf.
Whether you accept the screening panel's proposal or receive the adjudication panel's final decision, you can expect several disciplinary sanctions against your nursing license. They include the following:
Reprimand
With a public reprimand, the Montana Board of Nursing can accomplish several goals at once. It denounces your actions, discourages you from reoffending, and demonstrates its values and expectations to other employers, patients, clients, and other nurses.
Most nurses would consider a reprimand the lightest sanction possible, but they're still public record. They can still negatively affect how patients and employers think of you, which could lower your eligibility for new opportunities.
Fines
Depending on the type(s) and number of offenses, the board could force you to pay anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars in fines. In addition to covering costs for investigations and board operations, it's often a powerful deterrent against repeating or escalating your offenses.
You can continue practicing as a nurse if you have fines, but paying them off can stunt your career. After all, you'd have less money left to pay for license renewal fees, continuing education courses, or other tools and resources you would need to advance. You'd also have reduced financial stability in general, which could add stress you don't need in your life.
Montana Nurses Assistance Program (NAP)
The board understands that addiction to drugs or alcohol can alter a person's mental state, potentially contributing to crimes that fall under the umbrella of domestic violence. Chances are that if substance abuse is affecting your personal life, it's doing the same to your professional one.
To address the root cause of this issue, the Montana Board of Nursing offers an alternative to discipline. Known as the Montana Nurses Assistance Program (NAP), it's designed to help you overcome or control your addiction. If you complete it to the board's satisfaction, they'll likely allow you to continue working.
As comforting as it may be to know that you could still have a career despite abusing drugs or alcohol, it may not look the way you'd prefer. The time you spend in the NAP deprives you of opportunities to learn new skills, maintain your existing ones, and develop relationships with influential authority figures. The gap on your resume may be difficult to explain to future employers as well.
Suspension
Perhaps the board will decide that it's in your colleagues' and/or patients' best interest for you to step away from nursing for a while. In that case, they'll suspend your license. Before being allowed to work again, you'd either have to wait a predetermined period of time, or you'd be required to fulfill a list of requirements, like paying off fines or taking remedial education classes, or a combination of both.
As with enrollment in the NAP, license suspension would create a break in your employment history that might affect your eligibility for hire at a new job. Plus, your skills might get rusty, and you'd have no opportunity to develop new ones. While waiting to get the green light to nurse again, you'd have to find other means of supporting yourself, which is sure to cause financial trouble and make continuing education classes less affordable. Suspension can therefore set many of your vocational goals further out of reach.
Revocation or Denial
In what is probably the harshest possible sanction, the board might revoke your existing license or deny your application to obtain one. Your nursing career in Montana would come to a grinding halt, as you wouldn't be allowed to practice at all.
In most cases, you could apply for reinstatement one year after revocation, provided you've satisfied every other licensing requirement. However, the board could make you wait up to five years if the revocation was the result of unprofessional conduct, which could describe an order of protection or domestic violence charge. Worse still, if your license is revoked twice, Montana law would permanently ban you from the profession.
Assuming that this is your first revocation, however, there's hope in knowing that you can apply for reinstatement eventually. The trouble is that you'd have to deal with all the same disadvantages as a suspension, plus the board might put you through a much stricter approval process than before.
Restrictions
The board may allow you to keep working without any interruptions in your career at all, but in return, your license would be subject to restrictions. In other words, they would limit your scope, authority, or privileges. For example, you might only be able to work at certain times or in specific places, or you could be barred from administering particular medications or performing specialized tasks.
It's nice that you can keep practicing, but restrictions won't do any favors for your professional relationships, as your colleagues would have to compensate for what you couldn't do. You might also have trouble arranging your personal life around your restrictions. On top of all that, you couldn't honestly tell a prospective employer that you can perform all the tasks that they require.
Options for Protecting Your Nursing License in Montana
Civil courts typically process orders of protection while criminal courts handle domestic violence charges. However, the outcomes in those courts will not necessarily reflect what happens with the Montana Board of Nursing.
That's why you need to tackle this issue from more than just one angle. No matter what happens in court, you need the Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team helping you with the board as well. They can provide you with priceless legal advice as you devise strategies to protect your license, such as:
Enrolling in Rehab Voluntarily
Maybe you struggle with substance abuse, and the order of protection or domestic violence charges are a wake-up call. Consider enrolling in the NAP before the board can even think to require it of you.
If substance abuse doesn't factor into the situation, you might benefit instead from a program that focuses specifically on perpetrators of domestic violence. The Montana Domestic Violence Class and the Montana Board of Crime Control's Domestic Violence Intervention Program are great examples.
Either way, your initiative could go a long way in earning their leniency during the disciplinary process. Let the Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team advise you and show the board how committed you are to self-improvement.
Making a Deal
You may find some sanctions more preferable than others, or maybe you'd just like to lessen their severity. One possible way to convince the board to adjudicate more in your favor is to make a deal that demonstrates your remorse and benefits both parties. For instance, offer to fulfill extra conditions or take on more responsibilities to help out the board or your employer. The Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense can guide you in creating the right proposal.
Appeal the Adjudication Panel's Decision
If the adjudication board issues a disciplinary action that you feel is unreasonable or unjust, you can appeal it. Work with the Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team to file the appeal in a timely and effective manner so that the board is more likely to accept your request. The outcome might be more favorable with a second chance to advocate for yourself, especially since you might better understand the board's concerns and how to address them.
Why Hire the Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team?
You could battle the board's investigation and disciplinary process alone. However, partnering with the Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team raises your odds of success so significantly that contacting them should be your first priority. Here are some reasons why they can make all the difference in the results of your case:
Peerless Service
The Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team prides itself on being at the top of its field. Each attorney on your team has the experience, intelligence, and qualifications to serve as a powerful and persuasive advocate for you against the Montana Board of Nursing.
National Renown
You don't have to take the firm's word regarding its prowess. The Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team has been the talk of news outlets around the United States because of its skill and commitment to quality. Their track record is proof of their capability.
Personalized Strategies
While the Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team is well-versed in the most effective and time-honored defense methods and arguments, they know how to take the singularity of your situation into account. Every move they make will be tailored to your specific needs.
Customized Service
Cookie-cutter defenses are not part of the Lento Law Firm's strategy. While they know what methods and arguments tend to be most effective for specific cases, they understand the uniqueness of your situation. Everything that they plan and do will be customized to your needs and the facts of your case.
Keep Your Montana Nursing License Intact
There's always some overlap between a personal life and a professional one, but that doesn't mean that domestic violence charges and orders of protection should halt your career. Fight for your right to practice nursing in Montana. It starts with scheduling a consultation with the Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team, so call them today at 888.535.3686 or fill out this contact form.
