As a licensed nurse working in Massachusetts, you are already familiar with the nursing practice standards you are expected to meet each day at work, as well as other obligations you have as a registered nurse, such as continuing education requirements. If you find yourself facing criminal charges for family abuse or domestic violence, or if a protective order has been issued against you, you may wonder whether you're required to report that to the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing (BON), the Bureau of Health Professions Licensure, or the Department of Public Health.
Generally speaking, there is no requirement that a nurse report pending criminal allegations of any type to the BON or any other agency, and, in fact, there is no formal requirement that a nurse report criminal convictions either. That does not mean, however, that you will never have to disclose a conviction to the BON. The Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team can help you navigate the sometimes complicated requirements that nurses must follow to maintain their licenses in Massachusetts. Call us today at 888.535.3686 or use our contact form to schedule a confidential consultation with one of our experienced attorneys to learn how we can help.
Abuse of a Family or Household Member in Massachusetts
Massachusetts includes the following types of acts in its definition of “abuse” in the context of family or household members:
- An attempt to cause physical harm
- Causing physical harm
- Causing someone to fear “imminent serious physical harm”
- Causing someone to engage in “involuntary sexual relations” by way of “force, threat or duress”
The phrase “family or household member” has a specific definition as well. It includes:
- People who are or were married to each other
- Those who are or were “residing together” in the same household
- Relatives, both by blood and by marriage
- People who have a child in common
- Those who are or were in a “substantive dating or engagement relationship.”
These definitions are used by courts when someone files a complaint with a court asking the court to issue an order of protection against an alleged abuser. Protective orders are discussed in more detail below.
While Massachusetts does not have a separate crime of domestic violence, it does have a crime called assault or assault and battery on a family or household member. That crime uses a similar definition of “family or household member” as the definition listed above, except that relatives by blood or marriage are not included. Someone convicted of assault or assault and battery on a family or household member can be sentenced to up to 2-1/2 years in the house of correction and fined up to $5000. For a second (or additional) offense, the potential sentence can be either up to 2-1/2 years in the house of correction or up to 5 years in state prison.
If you are convicted of assault or assault and battery on a family or household member, you need to understand what your obligations are when it comes to reporting your conviction to the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing. The Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team can help you make sure you provide the information required by the BON and can defend and protect your rights in the event the BON decides to open a disciplinary investigation as a result.
Protective Orders in Massachusetts
A protective order, also known as an order of protection or sometimes a “209A order” after the section of the law that authorizes it, is a civil order issued by a judge that can order a defendant not to abuse the plaintiff as well as to do (or not do) a number of other things depending on the facts of the situation.
Before a court will issue a protective order, a person who alleges that they are “suffering from abuse” from a “family or household member” must file a complaint with a court that asks the court for protection from the abuse. The order can direct the defendant – the person targeted by the protective order – to do a number of things designed to protect the plaintiff from abuse. These include ordering the defendant:
- Not to abuse the plaintiff
- To vacate and stay away from the plaintiff's household – which can include the plaintiff's apartment building, if applicable – and to stay away from the plaintiff's workplace
- Not to abuse or contact the plaintiff's child or any child in the plaintiff's custody
- To pay temporary support for the plaintiff and any minor child
- To pay the abused person compensation for the abuse they have suffered
The protective order may also award the plaintiff temporary custody of a minor child, and set conditions for the defendant to be able to visit the child. The judge may also recommend that the defendant attend a batterer's intervention program certified by the department of public health.
It's important to understand that protective order cases are civil cases, not criminal. A defendant in a protective order case will not have a criminal record because a protective order is issued against them. That said, any violation of a protective order by the defendant can be prosecuted as a crime.
Because protective order cases are civil, the burden of proof that is required before the order will issue is lower than it is in criminal cases. Where a criminal case requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt before a defendant is convicted, in a protective order case the alleged abuse need only be proved by a preponderance of the evidence. In other words, the judge only needs to find that it is more likely than not that the defendant abused the plaintiff for the protective order to be issued.
Abuse Charges, Protective Orders, and Your Nursing License
The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing does not require nurses to report criminal charges, including those relating to abuse or assault on a family or household member, to the BON. It also has no requirement that nurses report when a protective order has been issued against them. That does not mean that if you are charged with a family abuse-related crime or if a protective order is entered against you that the BON will never find out. There are three ways this can happen.
The first is by way of a complaint filed by a member of the public against you with the BON. Any member of the public is free to file a complaint against a registered nurse at any time. The BON maintains a website that the public can use to submit complaints about nurses. Complaints can include as much or as little detail as the person filing decides to provide, and they can also be made anonymously. The BON will review the complaint and may decide to investigate it if the complaint appears to fall “within the Board's jurisdiction.”
If you have been accused of domestic violence, whether or not you face criminal charges as a result, there is little to stop your accuser or anyone else from filing a complaint about you to the BON. Whether the BON investigates the matter is entirely up to the BON and depends on what the complaint alleges.
The second way criminal charges may be brought to the BON's attention is when you renew your nursing license. If you have been convicted of a crime or have pled guilty or “no contest” as part of a plea deal, you will likely have to report the conviction to the BON when you renew. That is because one of the things you are required to swear under penalty of perjury when you renew your nursing license is that you comply with Massachusetts' requirements that nursing license holders be of “Good Moral Character.”
The BON has guidelines that it uses to determine whether a nursing applicant or license holder has complied with the state's Good Moral Character requirement. These guidelines note that an absence of Good Moral Character is “most often demonstrated by certain conduct” that can include “the conduct underlying certain criminal convictions” and “hostile or destructive conduct to another” that “demonstrates a disregard for the welfare, safety or rights of another.”
These guidelines note that there are certain crimes that will result in the nurse being permanently prohibited from the practice of nursing in Massachusetts. While the crime of assault or assault and battery on a family or household member (described above) is not one of the crimes that will result in this permanent prohibition, certain other assault crimes will, as well as a number of other violent crimes or crimes of a sexual nature.
Other types of convictions – ones that don't automatically result in a permanent ban – will result in a five-year license exclusion (or suspension) that will prohibit the nurse from practicing in Massachusetts during that time.
In some cases, the BON can elect not to impose the temporary five-year exclusion on a nurse convicted of a crime. The nurse must ask the BON to review their conviction and to determine that, despite the conviction, the nurse still meets the state's Good Moral Character requirement. The conviction must be for a misdemeanor, not a felony. It must not have resulted in the nurse being incarcerated, except for a first-time DUI conviction, provided the sentence was the least required by law. The nurse must have completed all court-ordered requirements relating to the conviction.
Other types of convictions may also qualify for a Good Moral Character finding. For example, if the crime was “victimless and nonviolent;” or if the nurse has “no open criminal case(s) against” them.
The third way that the BON can learn of your criminal conviction is by accident. If you renew your license, falsely state that you meet the BON's “Good Moral Character” requirements even though you have been convicted of a crime, and the BON learns of your conviction, it can open disciplinary proceedings against you for your false statement as well as your underlying conviction. In that case, it could be very difficult to avoid a five-year suspension at a minimum.
If you are a nurse who has been charged with or convicted of any crime – including a crime related to an accusation of domestic violence – you will benefit from the guidance that the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense attorneys can provide. We can help you make sure you meet your disclosure obligations and can draft and submit any requests to the BON to review your case and determine that you meet the state's Good Moral Character requirement in spite of your conviction.
Taking the step of reporting the conviction to the BON and requesting the Good Moral Character evaluation will generally be received by the BON much more positively than if the BON discovers your conviction through some other means. When the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team is working on your side, we can prepare a strong request that anticipates much of the information that the BON will need to evaluate your case and can help respond to questions and requests for information promptly and efficiently – all to your benefit.
The Lento Law Firm Can Help if You Face Family Abuse Charges in Massachusetts
If you are a licensed nurse in Massachusetts and have been accused of abusing a family or household member, it's important that you keep in mind the effect that the outcome of your criminal case can have on your nursing license. The Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team can help you make sure you do so and that you are aware of the potential consequences to your license of decisions you make in that case. We can evaluate any potential plea agreement based on the BON's Good Moral Character standards and procedures, and can advise you whether the terms of the agreement can hurt your chances at retaining your license.
Our attorneys have years of experience helping nurses all over the country, including in Massachusetts, protect their licenses and defend themselves against all types of misconduct allegations. 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. Your nursing license is the key to your livelihood and your future; let us help you protect it!
