If you've been disciplined by your state's Board of Nursing (or the equivalent state agency responsible for nursing license discipline), you might be wondering if that's the end of things – will you ever have to revisit your case again? In some cases, you may want the hearing panel to rehear your case, for example, if there is new information that the panel didn't consider that could help you. Or perhaps you didn't attend your hearing and are having second thoughts about whether the outcome would have been different had you done so.
There are a number of reasons why your state's Board of Nursing may decide to reopen a case that has already been heard and decided. Any reopened case can result in the BON changing its decision, though it may also decide not to do so. If you have learned that your BON is reopening what you believed was your closed disciplinary matter, or if you would like to petition your BON to reopen your matter, contact the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team at 888.535.3686 or by using our contact form to schedule a confidential consultation. We will evaluate your situation with you, and tell you how our experienced professional license defense attorneys can help.
Reasons for a Board to Reopen a Closed Disciplinary Matter
It's not unheard of for a Board of Nursing to reopen a disciplinary matter that has been closed. There are a number of reasons why a BON might do so – some of which can be helpful to the nurse whose license was affected by the original decision, and some of which may not be so welcome. Generally speaking, any time a hearing panel reopens a disciplinary matter, the result can change – so it's important to be working with an experienced professional license defense attorney if your case is reopened.
Here are some of the reasons why a disciplinary case can be reopened, leading to the BON changing its decision on the matter.
The Nurse's Appeal Is Successful and the Board is Ordered to Reopen the Matter
When a hearing panel issues its ruling after the close of a hearing, the nurse whose license is affected by the ruling typically has the right to appeal the decision. Appeals are normally based on a claim that the hearing panel made certain mistakes during the hearing process, and the procedure for filing an appeal can vary from one state to another.
When the appeal is based on some failure by the hearing panel in the hearing process – such as improperly refusing to allow a witness to testify or to be cross-examined or declining to consider certain proposed evidence that could help the nurse's case – the result will typically be an order that the case be reheard. The hearing panel will be ordered to fix the errors that it made in how it conducted the hearing the first time around. However, whether the result of the hearing changes the second time around depends entirely on the facts of the case that the hearing panel considers.
When you have a chance to re-do a hearing that resulted in you being disciplined by your BON, you want to make sure you take full advantage of that second chance. Working with an experienced professional license defense attorney from the Lento Law Firm will help make that happen. There is no guarantee that the result of the second hearing in your disciplinary proceeding will be more favorable to you than the result of the first one – but the best way to increase your chances of a good result is if you're represented by an attorney who has helped other nurses protect their licenses in similar situations.
The Nurse Did Not Participate in the Hearing, but Wants to Reopen the Matter
It's not at all unusual for a nurse facing discipline from their Board of Nursing to decide that they are not going to become involved in the disciplinary process. This, of course, is usually not the best way to handle a disciplinary matter and will often result in sanctions against the nurse based both on the misconduct complaint and, if it applies, on the nurse's failure to cooperate with the disciplinary investigation.
Nurses who have been disciplined after not participating in their own defense often regret this decision. In many cases, it may be possible to ask the BON to reopen the matter so that the nurse can present a defense or negotiate a different outcome. When that happens, the BON may decide to grant the nurse's request to reopen their case, particularly if the nurse can provide compelling reasons why they did not participate the first time around. A reopened case can lead to a different result, especially if the nurse is able to provide a strong defense to the misconduct allegations made against them.
If you're a nurse facing a situation where you want to petition to reopen a disciplinary case that was decided without your participation, contact the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team for help. It's never a given that your BON will agree to your request, and our attorneys can review your case and will use our experience helping other nurses in other cases to draft and submit a compelling petition that's based on your particular situation.
The Board Closed the Original Case, but the Nurse Failed to Follow the Disciplinary Conditions
One way that nursing disciplinary cases are often resolved is with an order directing the nurse to do certain things in order to be able to continue to practice nursing. For example, the nurse may be required to take certain courses or successfully complete a course of rehabilitation. There is often a time limit placed on this, particularly where the requirement relates to coursework. If the nurse fails to report back that they have successfully met the conditions that the BON placed on them, their case might be reopened so that the BON can consider whether to impose additional sanctions against the nurse.
If this happens, you need the help of an experienced attorney, someone who can help you explain to the BON why it should not impose additional sanctions on you because you did not meet the requirements that the BON was expecting you to fulfill. In many cases, there are good reasons for not being able to complete the coursework that the BON said you had to complete within the original time frame the BON had imposed. But if you don't let the BON know of any difficulties you're facing with doing what the BON expected you to, you could face even worse sanctions when your case is reopened.
When you work with an attorney from the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team, we will use our experience and understanding of BON procedures in your state to provide the board with the reasons why you were not able to meet the original conditions that the board imposed on you. Very often, what will result – if your case is presented to the BON in a detailed way, especially if it's done before the deadline passes – is that the BON will extend the time you have to comply with its requirements. You'll be much better off than if you allow the deadline to pass and haven't explained to the board why you have not completed the steps that the board required you to.
The Board Learns of Additional Facts That Are Relevant to the Disciplinary Case
In unusual circumstances, a BON may reopen a closed disciplinary matter if it learns that there are additional relevant facts that relate to that matter that were not brought to the board's attention in the first case. This can happen in two ways; one could be favorable to the nurse, and the other could be unfavorable.
In the first situation, the nurse may ask the BON to reopen their case if they uncover information that is relevant to their defense that they did not have access to at the time of the original hearing. For example, the nurse could uncover evidence that someone else was trying to hide that could exonerate the nurse or that could have been used to call an important witness's testimony into question. A witness who is able to provide testimony helpful to the nurse's case but was not available for the original hearing (or who the nurse didn't know about) may become available after the hearing is complete.
In these kinds of cases, the nurse could petition the BON to reopen their case because of these additional factors that the hearing panel did not consider the first time around. There is no guarantee, however, that a BON will agree to reopen a closed case, even if the nurse has what appears to be good reasons for making the request. If you are working with an experienced professional license defense attorney from the Lento Law Firm, however, your chances of having your petition granted are going to be higher because our attorneys understand the kinds of arguments that have appealed to other boards in similar situations in the past.
The second situation where a board decides to reopen a case is more serious because it arises when the BON learns that there is information damaging to the nurse's case that was withheld from the board during the first hearing. This can happen in cases where the board learns that the nurse was not truthful during the disciplinary process. It can also happen if someone provides the board with information about the situation that was the focus of the disciplinary hearing that wasn't considered during the hearing, but that makes the situation appear to be even more serious.
In this second type of scenario, you will need the help of an experienced professional license defense attorney to protect your rights and to fight for you when the hearing panel reconsiders your disciplinary matter based on this new information. This is not something you want to wade into on your own; when your case is reopened because the BON believes you may have lied or because additional incriminating information is revealed to the board, your best chance of coming through it with the result that preserves your ability to work as a nurse is to have an attorney on your team who knows how to defend nurses in these kinds of difficult situations.
The Lento Law Firm is Here to Protect Your Nursing License
If you are a nurse who is facing a disciplinary investigation or disciplinary proceeding, you need the help of an experienced attorney who understands your state's laws, regulations, and rules relating to the practice of nursing and the procedures that the Board of Nursing (or other appropriate agency) uses in nursing disciplinary cases. You need someone on your side who has defended other nurses in other cases and knows how to fight for your rights. You can depend on the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team to be there from the word go to help you understand what is happening and to work on your behalf to provide you with the best result.
Whether you want to reopen an earlier disciplinary case so that you can change the result or whether you've been notified that your BON is reopening a case you believe had been closed, your best chance of reaching a result that will protect your license your future, and your livelihood is to retain an experienced professional license defense attorney as soon as possible.
It's natural to have lots of questions when you are involved in any nursing license disciplinary matter. Call the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team today at 888.535.3686 or use our contact form to schedule a confidential consultation with one of our experienced attorneys. Tell us about your case, and let us tell you all the ways we can help.
