Accusations of domestic violence, or being served with a personal protection order (PPO) or domestic violence restraining order, can jeopardize a nurse's license, job, and career. State nursing boards take seriously the risk that a nurse facing such allegations or under such restrictions may present to patients, professional colleagues, or the public. If you face domestic violence allegations or a restraining order, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team to help you head off state nursing board disciplinary charges or defend disciplinary charges already entered against you. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our skilled and experienced representation, and your best disciplinary outcome.
Domestic Violence and Restraining Orders
Domestic violence generally involves physical injury or threats of physical injury by one person in an intimate or household relationship with another person. State courts and law enforcement agencies generally swiftly address domestic violence accusations, with court orders to keep away from the alleged victim because of the risk of serious injury. Many homicides and assaults resulting in serious or even permanent injury are between spouses or other intimate partners. Federal and state laws authorize or require courts and police agencies to protect putative domestic violence victims, often on a first call to police, even when the allegation may be false or exaggerated. New York's Criminal Procedure Law §§530.10 et seq. and Family Court Act §812 are examples, requiring notice to the victim of the right to a restraining order, emergency shelter, and other protections. Domestic violence allegations and restraining orders can arise out of police calls, in divorce complaints, in other family court actions and investigations over paternity and child custody, and in other ways.
Restraining Orders Affecting the Nursing Workplace
Many states authorize their civil courts to issue a domestic violence restraint or personal protection order (PPO) within an hour or little more of a first domestic violence complaint. Michigan is an example. Michigan Compiled Law Section 600.2950 requires the civil or family court clerk to assist an unrepresented individual in completing a PPO request and to promptly get the individual before the assigned, waiting judge to issue the order. Once the court issues the order, police must swiftly serve it on the restrained defendant. The restraint may oust the defendant from the complaining party's home, prevent the defendant from coming anywhere near the complaining party or contacting the complaining party by text or phone, and deprive the defendant of clothing and other personal effects in the home and of joint transportation. If the complaining party works at or near the nursing facility, the restraint may prevent the defendant from appearing at work. Restraining orders are public records and sometimes get reported in the press or widely distributed on social media. Your employer and state nursing board are likely to find out.
Domestic Violence and Restraining Orders
Retain our attorneys if you face accusations of any of the following behaviors and those accusations have reached or will soon reach your nursing employer or state nursing board, or if you find yourself served with a restraining order interfering with your nursing employment. Don't let state nursing board disciplinary charges threaten your nursing employment and destroy your nursing career. Examples of domestic violence can vary widely but may include:
- a spouse striking, shoving, choking, or poisoning the other spouse, or threatening or attempting to do so;
- a spouse throwing objects, aiming firearms, drawing a knife, or raising a fist, tool, or other object in threat of the other spouse's personal harm;
- a spouse threatening the life of the other spouse, imminently or on the occurrence or non-occurrence of certain conditions, in person or by text, telephone, or writing;
- a parent assaulting or threatening to assault the parent's child or an adult child assaulting or threatening to assault a parent;
- one household member destroying the personal or real property of another household member accompanied by threats of personal harm;
- an intimate partner or former intimate partner hiring or recruiting another to commit any of the above acts against the other intimate partner; or
- an intimate partner or former intimate partner stalking, surveilling, or otherwise interfering with the privacy and personal safety and security of the other intimate partner.
Duties to Report Nurse Domestic Violence
You may wonder whether state nursing board officials will discover your alleged domestic violence or restraining order. Your professional colleagues or nursing employer may have their own interests and duties to report your alleged domestic violence or court restraint to state nursing board disciplinary officials. State laws, rules, and regulations can impose several mandatory reporting requirements on nurses and other healthcare providers. See, for example, New York's mandated reporters law for child abuse and neglect, requiring reporting from nurses, doctors, social workers, and others. Your employer may face civil liability or facility license suspension if employing nurses who have demonstrated the propensity to violate criminal or personal safety laws and who may risk harm to patients or colleagues. Your nursing supervisor, colleague nurses and physicians, or other licensed healthcare professionals with whom you work may have statutory or regulatory duties to report your suspected unfitness for nursing practice. Word gets around. Beware of the risk that you face, as others in and around your nursing workplace may report you to state nursing board officials. Let us help you address your licensing disciplinary risks before things reach the point of formal disciplinary charges.
State Board Interests in Nurse Domestic Violence
State nursing boards have their own interests in discovering and addressing domestic violence allegations and restraining orders involving their licensed nurses. State nursing boards, like the California Board of Registered Nursing, have the statutory duty to protect patients and the public against unfit or incompetent nursing. Your state nursing board will certainly accept reports and complaints relating to your alleged domestic violence or court restraint from your patients, professional colleagues, and employer representatives. However, your state nursing board officials may also monitor court records and public media reports for allegations that one of their licensed nurses may be engaged in endangering misconduct or conduct that exposes the nursing profession to public condemnation. Your state nursing board may pursue formal disciplinary charges against you, even if no one in your workplace complains about your domestic violence matter. State nursing boards take domestic violence allegations and court restraints against their licensed nurses very seriously. Don't minimize the risk of disciplinary charges and license discipline if you face those allegations or restraints. Get our help addressing your disciplinary risks before they interfere with your nursing license and employment.
State Nursing Board Authority to Discipline
Your state nursing board will have full authority to discipline your license if its officials find that you present a safety or security risk to your patients, their family members, your professional colleagues, or others in and around your nursing workplace. State nursing practice acts uniformly authorize state nursing boards not only to issue licenses but also to discipline those licenses, up to suspension or revocation, when a nurse demonstrates bad character or other unfitness for nursing. The Florida Nurse Practice Act is an example. Its Section 464.018 authorizes the Florida Board of Nursing to discipline the license of any nurse on a long list of disciplinary grounds. The Florida Board of Nursing accordingly maintains an enforcement function that solicits complaints against its licensed nurses, on which its disciplinary officials will act. Don't underestimate the willingness and resources of your state nursing board to act on a report that you have committed domestic violence and are under a court restraint. Get our help defending your disciplinary charges.
Disciplinary Grounds for Domestic Violence
State nursing practice acts generally list the disciplinary grounds on which the state nursing board may act to suspend or revoke a nurse's license. Those disciplinary grounds routinely reach allegations of domestic violence and court restraints relating to those allegations. The Florida Nurse Practice Act, just cited, is again an example. The Act's Section 464.018 includes among its disciplinary grounds “having committed an act which constitutes domestic violence” under the state's laws. The Florida Nurse Practice Act also includes unprofessional conduct and failing to meet minimal nursing standards among its grounds for license discipline. Your state nursing board will not find it hard to articulate the statutory or regulatory grounds on which to discipline you if you face domestic violence allegations or a court restraint relating to such allegations. Don't doubt your state nursing board's authority to discipline. Instead, get our help defending disciplinary charges relating to domestic violence.
Defenses to Domestic Violence Disciplinary Charges
Just because you face disciplinary charges does not mean that you will suffer discipline. If you face disciplinary charges relating to alleged domestic violence or a restraining order, we may be able to prove a sound and compelling defense to those charges. Domestic violence generally means the occurrence of an event in the home or another location outside of the nursing workplace. It also generally means a specific dispute between intimate partners or household members, not between a nurse and patient or professional colleague. We may be able to show your state nursing board officials any one or more of the following defenses:
- that you did not commit the alleged acts, are innocent of the allegations, and present no risk to any patient or colleague in the nursing workplace;
- that the allegations against you were false, fabricated, and manipulative, to gain undue advantages in divorce, child custody, or other proceedings;
- that the allegations were retaliatory for your ending or restricting an intimate relationship with an emotionally unstable or otherwise deluded individual;
- that any actions you took were in reasonably necessary self-defense of threats or violence by the complaining party or the reasonably necessary defense of children or other vulnerable individuals;
- that any acts you committed bore no relationship whatsoever to the nursing workplace, such that you present no threat of unfitness or risk of harm to any patient or colleague; or
- that any acts you committed were in extraordinary circumstances involving a one-time incident that will not repeat itself, your having addressed the issues giving rise to the incident.
Factors Influencing Domestic Violence Discipline
Not every instance of a domestic violence allegation or restraining order against a nurse will necessarily result in state nursing board disciplinary charges. Certain factors may make disciplinary charges more or less likely, depending on your specific circumstances. Our attorneys can help you evaluate your situation and develop the best defense evidence and arguments against disciplinary charges. Consider the following potential aggravating and mitigating factors influencing state nursing board disciplinary charges.
Aggravating Factors for Domestic Violence Disciplinary Charges
- the complainant suffered personal injury in the domestic matter;
- the domestic matter involved multiple instances rather than a single instance;
- the domestic matter involved several individuals rather than a single intimate partner;
- the domestic matter involved children or other vulnerable individuals;
- the domestic violence spread outside the home to other locations;
- the domestic violence matter involved another healthcare professional;
- the domestic violence matter involved a patient, former patient, or patient's family member;
- the domestic violence matter led to a court issuing a restraining order;
- the restraining order extends beyond the home in which the matter took place to the nursing facility; or
- the domestic violence matter involved the violation of a restraining order;
- the domestic violence matter involved stalking, surveilling, or similar invasion of privacy.
Mitigating Factors for Domestic Violence Disciplinary Charges
- only a single person made or supported the domestic violence allegation;
- the allegation involved only a single incident rather than multiple incidents;
- no one suffered any harm and no property damage occurred;
- the complaining party had engaged in acts of violence, theft, or other disruption to which the allegedly violent actions responded;
- the accused individual was acting to protect property or other individuals;
- the accused actor had no prior record of any wrongdoing;
- the accused actor has an outstanding record of nursing care and service; and
- the accused actor is willing to submit to evaluation, monitoring, counseling, training, or other remedial measures.
Avoiding Disciplinary Charges for Domestic Violence
You may have the opportunity to avoid disciplinary charges relating to domestic violence allegations or a court restraining order if you take prompt and appropriate action, retaining our attorneys to assist you. Addressing rather than ignoring your domestic issues, with counseling or other assistance, may go a long way not only to avoiding further allegations but also to minimizing the impact of any allegations that have already reached your workplace or state nursing board officials. We may be able to communicate on your behalf with the complainant or complainant's legal representatives to negotiate appropriate communication with state nursing board officials to address any disciplinary concerns. We may also be able to communicate on your behalf with your employer representatives or colleagues to relieve concerns over your fitness that might otherwise reach disciplinary officials. Let us help you address your situation before it worsens into a state nursing board disciplinary investigation. A stitch in time can save nine.
Responding to State Board Investigation
Your matter may have already reached your state nursing board officials for investigation. State nursing boards staff investigation offices. The Georgia Board of Nursing is an example, establishing investigation committees that meet regularly to assign cases for investigation and evaluate the progress of investigations. You may have heard from your colleagues or employer that someone made a report and that state nursing board investigators are requesting records and information. You may also have already received a contact and requests for information from the investigator.
Retain us as soon as you learn of a state nursing board disciplinary investigation. We can help you identify, gather, and present your exonerating evidence and mitigating information to the investigator, with the goal of heading off formal disciplinary charges. You must be sure to provide only accurate, truthful, and complete information to the investigator, lest you face additional charges of obstructing or failing to cooperate with the investigation. We can help you ensure that careless, sloppy, or inaccurate investigation responses don't get you into further trouble. We can also help you prepare for the investigator's interview for the same reason.
Hearing on Domestic Violence Disciplinary Charges
You may have already received notice of your state nursing board's disciplinary charges relating to your domestic violence or restraining order matter. In that case, you definitely need our attorneys' skilled and experienced defense of those charges. State nursing boards follow common complaint processes. The Georgia Board of Nursing is an example, publishing a complaint process that goes from investigation to charge and hearing on the charge before a state administrative law judge. Your state nursing board may effectively default you on the charges, taking them as established and imposing automatic discipline, if you do not timely and appropriately respond to the charges. We can help you do so. Our attorneys can identify and plead your defenses to the charges, communicate and negotiate with disciplinary officials for an early voluntary resolution, or invoke your right to a formal hearing if necessary. At the hearing, we can present your defense testimony, witnesses, and exhibits, and cross-examine adverse witnesses. Don't underestimate your need for our skilled and effective representation.
Post-Hearing Relief from Domestic Violence Discipline
You may have already lost your formal hearing on your domestic violence disciplinary charges. You may already face license suspension or revocation. If so, we may still be able to help you by taking an appeal of your adverse decision. State nursing practice acts and their implementing regulations generally offer some form of appeal, either to the full state nursing board, a special appeal panel of the board, another state agency, or a state civil court. The Georgia Board of Nursing is once again an example, providing for an appeal of an adverse decision to a state superior court. Appeals can be highly technical in nature, requiring that the appellant analyze the hearing record to show the appeal officer or panel the specific legal or factual errors that the hearing decision made. Our attorneys have the skill and experience to pursue, perfect, and advocate your best appeal for reversal of the disciplinary findings and sanctions. Don't give up. Let us help you exhaust all available avenues for relief until you achieve your best possible disciplinary outcome.
Disciplinary Sanctions for Domestic Violence
State nursing practice acts authorize a range of disciplinary sanctions for domestic violence and other wrongs. Those sanctions generally run the gamut from reprimand or probation, through evaluation, monitoring, and counseling, to license limitation, restriction, conditions, suspension, or revocation. When you are facing state nursing board disciplinary charges, remember that a disciplinary charge does not necessarily mean that you will lose your license to suspension or revocation. Our attorneys may be able to successfully advocate and negotiate for remedial measures like voluntary training, education, counseling, or mentoring in lieu of punitive sanctions. Your goal should be to avoid any discipline that would leave an adverse record and to preserve your nursing employment and reputation.
The Qualifications of License Defense Counsel
You should have recognized from the above discussion that effective professional license defense requires peculiar knowledge, skill, and experience. Do not retain an unqualified local criminal defense counsel or civil litigator. Court rules and procedures differ from administrative licensing rules and procedures. We have the reputation and relationships, as well as the knowledge and skill, to effectively advocate and negotiate with state nursing board officials in your licensing matter relating to domestic violence allegations or a restraining order. Get the attorney representation you need for your best disciplinary outcome.
Premier License Defense Attorneys Available
If you face state nursing board disciplinary charges relating to domestic violence charges or a restraining order, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team now for your best disciplinary outcome. Our attorneys have helped hundreds of nurses and other healthcare professionals in state board disciplinary proceedings nationwide. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our skilled and effective representation.
