Nebraska makes a fine state in which to establish and build a pharmacy practice. Nebraska has a stable economy, a friendly population, and pleasant cities and towns. The state’s sophisticated healthcare system offers substantial pharmacist practice and employment opportunities. Your pharmacy education, examination, internship, and licensure came at a substantial cost and effort, but earned you the privilege of a rewarding pharmacy career. Yet don’t let Nebraska Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges related to your criminal issues ruin your Nebraska pharmacy practice and career. The Nebraska Board of Pharmacy may discipline your license up to suspension or revocation for a criminal conviction calling your character and fitness into question. Retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team for your best possible outcome to the Nebraska Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges. We are available in Omaha, Lincoln, Bellevue, Grand Island, Kearney, Fremont, Norfolk, Hastings, Columbus, Papillon, North Platte, La Vista, Scottsbluff, South Sioux City, Beatrice, or any other Nebraska location to help you defend and defeat your Nebraska Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now.
Nebraska Pharmacist Criminal Arrests
Nebraska may be a secure and non-violent Midwest or Plains State, facing few or none of the urban challenges of the East and West Coasts. Indeed, Nebraska has significantly lower violent crime rates than the national average. Yet, Nebraska has slightly higher property crime rates than the national average. And Nebraska crime statistics still show the occurrence of significant numbers not just of property crimes like shoplifting, vehicle theft, and larceny, numbering around 25,000 crimes annually, but also of violent crimes like homicides, assaults, and domestic violence, numbering around 2,000 to 3,000 annually. Nebraska also has significant numbers of crimes against the public, like drug and drunk driving crimes, prostitution, and disorderly conduct. Nebraska pharmacists are unfortunately among those committing these crimes. Your pharmacist license carries no guarantee of criminal immunity. Just the opposite: the Nebraska Board of Pharmacy will discipline you for your criminal conviction if it believes that you present a risk to pharmacy customers or the public. Let us help you defend and defeat any such disciplinary charges.
Nebraska Pharmacist Pharmacy Crimes
Pharmacy practice, with its constant access to valuable and hard-to-obtain controlled substances, can also tempt Nebraska pharmacists into committing crimes related to their pharmacist practice. See, for example, the conviction of a Nebraska pharmacist for making false and fraudulent statements in healthcare services. See also pharmacist convictions across the country for sale of mislabeled commodities, misappropriation of controlled substances, unlawful oxycodone distribution, kickbacks, pill mills, insurance fraud, drug-dispensing violations, and opioid diversion. The Nebraska Board of Pharmacy certainly has the personnel and commitment to pursue disciplinary charges. The Nebraska Department of Health & Human Services publishes Board of Pharmacy disciplinary action reports, among other professional discipline reports, online. Those reports include the disciplined pharmacist’s name, wrong, and sanction. Don’t risk discipline that you do not deserve. Get our skilled defense.
Nebraska Pharmacist Licensure Authority
Nebraska Pharmacy Practice Act Section 38-2850 authorizes pharmacists who are licensed by the Nebraska Board of Pharmacy to practice pharmacy in the state. Without a Board of Pharmacy license, you must not practice in Nebraska. The Act’s Section 38-2867 expressly prohibits unlicensed practice, making unlicensed practice a Class III misdemeanor, punishable by up to three months in jail and a $500 fine. Section 38-28,103 elevates the crime to a Class II misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and six months in jail for further violations of the Pharmacy Practice Act. Don’t expect to continue your pharmacist practice if you lose your license due to the Nebraska Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges related to your criminal issues. Instead, let us help you defend and defeat the license disciplinary charges.
Nebraska Pharmacist Licensure Requirements
Nebraska Pharmacy Practice Act Section 38-2851 states the basic qualifications for a Nebraska Board of Pharmacy license. Those qualifications include a pharmacy degree, a pharmacy examination, and a year of supervised pharmacist practice. You must also complete the application forms through which the Board of Pharmacy can gather your criminal history, conduct a background check, and ensure your credentials. Nebraska Uniform Controlled Substances Section 28-409 further authorizes the Board of Pharmacy to deny, refuse to renew, or discipline a license based on a list of grounds that includes certain criminal convictions. Let us help if you face issues qualifying for licensure because of your criminal issues.
Nebraska Pharmacist License Renewals
Pharmacists must renew their Nebraska Board of Pharmacy license every two years. License renewal requires completing the Board of Pharmacy’s renewal application forms and process, including a disclosure of potentially disqualifying conditions like criminal convictions. As just stated above, Section 28-409 authorizes the Board of Pharmacy to deny your license renewal application if you have suffered a disqualifying criminal conviction in the interim since your last renewal. Don’t run afoul of license renewal requirements. Let us help you accurately disclose your criminal conviction in the most accurate light, to avoid credential fraud charges and to ensure that we have the best opportunity to preserve and protect your license. We can invoke hearing procedures if the Board of Pharmacy denies you a license renewal due to your criminal issues.
Nebraska Pharmacist License Discipline for Crime
You may face a separate license disciplinary proceeding before the Nebraska Board of Pharmacy, even if your license renewal is not due or the Board renews your license but questions your criminal conviction. The Nebraska Uniform Controlled Substances Act’s Section 28-409 permits the Board of Pharmacy to discipline your license based on your felony conviction or your conviction, misdemeanor or felony, for a controlled substances crime. Section 28-409 also lists several other disciplinary grounds beyond criminal conviction, including for violating the same controlled substances laws but without conviction. The Board of Pharmacy may, in other words, discipline your license with or without conviction for certain criminal acts. Let us help you defend and defeat any such disciplinary charges.
Nebraska Pharmacy Board Disciplinary Discretion
Nebraska Uniform Controlled Substances Act Section 28-409, authorizing the Nebraska Board of Pharmacy to discipline your license, leaves your discipline to the Board’s discretion. The statute states that your pharmacist license “may be denied, suspended, revoked, or renewal refused,” not that the Board must deny, suspend, revoke, or refuse to renew it. Board of Pharmacy discretion gives our attorneys the opportunity to argue any material grounds for your relief from discipline. Those grounds may include your immaturity and inexperience when convicted, your reliance on the authoritative advice of others relating to your actions, that you were a follower rather than a leader in the actions, that you promptly stopped and corrected your actions when learning of their criminal nature, that no one suffered any harm from your actions, and that you had a clean criminal and disciplinary record, and strong academic and employment record. These are just a few of the equitable grounds in mitigation that we may be able to raise, in addition to other defenses mentioned below.
Disciplinary Differences Among Specific Crimes
You’ve just seen that the Nebraska Uniform Controlled Substances Act Section 28-409 permits discipline based on felony conviction or conviction of a controlled substances crime. The Nebraska Board of Pharmacy’s discretion to impose or not impose discipline indicates that it will look closely at your specific crime, giving us the opportunity to raise the following defenses as to each category of discipline-worthy crime.
License Discipline Effect of Nebraska Pharmacy-Related Crimes
Nebraska Uniform Controlled Substances Act Section 28-409 first authorizes the Board of Pharmacy to discipline for felony crime. Felony crimes include violent crimes like homicide, aggravated assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, and false imprisonment, serious property crimes like arson, burglary, and larceny of valuable property, and public crimes like drunk driving causing serious injury and drug crimes involving certain substances in certain amounts. Felony crime can suggest customer safety and security risks, and lead to public condemnation and mistrust of pharmacists. We may be able to show that the court expunged or set aside your conviction, your conviction was not a felony, you rehabilitated your character, you received a pardon, or the crime involved loss of control from heat of passion unrelated to pharmacy practice, such that you create no pharmacy risk.
License Discipline Effect of Controlled Substances Crimes
Nebraska Uniform Controlled Substances Act Section 28-409 also authorizes the Board of Pharmacy to discipline for controlled substances crime, whether a misdemeanor or felony. Controlled substances crimes include unlawful drug possession, distribution, or manufacture, and may include pharmacy-related crimes like drug diversion, dispensing violations, and dispensing records violations. Controlled substances crimes could also include impaired driving. We may be able to defend these crimes by showing the same defenses above and, additionally, your treatment and recovery from any related addiction, dependency, or substance abuse issue. We may alternatively be able to show that your crime was a technical violation of ambiguous laws and circumstances, after you relied on an authoritative interpretation. We may also be able to show that your crime harmed no one, making you no risk to pharmacy practice.
Differences Between Criminal Case Stages
The Nebraska Board of Pharmacy may attempt to draw unjust inferences from the fact of your criminal investigation, arrest, or charge, when to the contrary, the Board of Pharmacy should instead rely only on your conviction, if any. Otherwise, the Board should produce sufficient evidence establishing its disciplinary charge. The following discussion shows how we may hold the Board of Pharmacy accountable to its evidentiary burden.
License Discipline Effect of Nebraska Criminal Investigation
The Nebraska Board of Pharmacy must not discipline solely based on your criminal investigation if you suffered no conviction. While reasonable suspicion is enough for criminal investigation, suspicion is not evidence satisfying the Board of Pharmacy’s evidentiary burden in its disciplinary proceeding.
License Discipline Effect of Nebraska Criminal Arrest
The Nebraska Board of Pharmacy must also not discipline based solely on your criminal arrest if you suffered no conviction. While probable cause is enough for an arrest, probable cause is not evidence satisfying the Board of Pharmacy’s evidentiary burden in its disciplinary proceeding.
License Discipline Effect of Nebraska Criminal Charge
The Nebraska Board of Pharmacy must also not discipline based solely on your criminal charge if you suffered no conviction. While criminal charges depend only on the prosecutor’s expectation that evidence will establish the crime, an expectation is not evidence satisfying the Board of Pharmacy’s evidentiary burden in its disciplinary proceeding. Prosecutors abandon charges and courts dismiss charges for lack of evidence, which may have been why your charges did not proceed to conviction.
License Discipline Effect of Nebraska Criminal Conviction
The Nebraska Board of Pharmacy may discipline you based on your conviction. Yet we may still be able to show one or more of the above defenses in your disciplinary proceeding to avoid license discipline.
Nebraska Pharmacist’s Duty to Report Crime Issues
You will need to disclose your criminal conviction to the Nebraska Board of Pharmacy. The Board of Pharmacy’s requirement that you renew your license every two years means you must complete the renewal application forms requiring disclosure of potentially disqualifying conditions like criminal convictions. Your deliberate omission of that information could be credential fraud because Section 28-409 authorizes the Board of Pharmacy to deny your license renewal application for a disqualifying criminal conviction since your last renewal. Let us help you comply with reporting requirements.
Nebraska Pharmacist Licensing Procedures
Nebraska Uniform Controlled Substances Act Section 28-409 expressly incorporates the Nebraska Administrative Procedure Act for proceedings involving the discipline of a pharmacist’s license. The Administrative Procedure Act requires the Nebraska Board of Pharmacy to offer you an administrative hearing and other procedural protections, including an administrative appeal and limited civil court review. We can invoke your Administrative Procedure Act rights for your best disciplinary outcome.
Premier Nebraska Pharmacist License Defense
Your best move is to retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to defend your Nebraska Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges arising out of your criminal issues. We help hundreds of pharmacists and other healthcare professionals in Nebraska and nationwide successfully defend their disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our skilled defense.