Nurses have a tremendous investment in their nursing education, license, and practice. They also reasonably expect a great reward and return on that investment. License disciplinary proceedings, though, can result in license suspension or revocation that destroys everything for which a nurse has worked. And restraining orders can be one of the triggers for crippling license proceedings. If you face nursing license issues because of a restraining order or threat of a restraining order, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for your best possible licensing outcome. Our skilled and experienced attorneys are available nationwide to help you address your nursing license issues relating to restraining orders and other events or conditions. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our premier attorneys' strategic representation.
The Nature of a Restraining Order
Without belaboring the many details and instead only addressing the subject as it may relate to your nursing license, restraining orders are civil family court or criminal court orders that the party subject to the order avoid certain conduct, take certain actions, or correct certain conditions to protect others or their property, reputation, and relationships. Restraining orders commonly occur in family court (divorce, paternity, child support, and guardianship) cases in which one party or another alleges violence, threats, theft, trespass, stalking, or other harmful or damaging actions by another party in the case. Restraining orders may also be issued in criminal court cases involving domestic violence, theft, trespass, vandalism, and similar allegations between a complainant and defendant who are related or have an intimate or close relationship. Courts enforce their restraining orders through contempt penalties for violators, including fines and incarceration. Law enforcement officers may also enforce restraining orders through arrest.
Restraining Order Procedures
Again, without belaboring the many details and instead only addressing the subject as it may relate to your nursing license, restraining order procedures involve the complainant's resort to the court or police and prosecutor, reporting the alleged grounds for the restraint. The court may issue an emergency restraint without the restrained party's knowledge but must then hold a prompt hearing at which the restrained party may contest the restraint. The court may rescind temporary orders and refuse to issue a further restraint or may convert the temporary order into a continuing restraining order for a certain or indefinite duration. Thus, restraining order proceedings may arise and resolve quickly, within a matter of hours or days, or more instead languish and endure for a period of months or even years. Defendants in restraining order proceedings wisely retain local criminal defense or family law representation to resist the restraining order request.
Why Restraining Orders Are Licensing Issues
Restraining orders and the allegations seeking them often become licensing issues for state nursing boards to address because they allege or imply violent, dangerous, dishonest, or other bad character. State nursing boards have the obligation to protect patients and the public against unfit, unsafe, and dishonest nursing practices. State nursing practice acts routinely include disciplinary grounds to suspend or revoke a nurse's license for the nurse's unfitness due to violent, threatening, criminal, dishonest, or other disruptive actions and tendencies, especially those tendencies that may injure or have injured patients.
The Illinois Nurse Practice Act is an example, providing in its Section 70-5 for the discipline of nurses on those very grounds, including engaging in dishonorable, unethical, or unprofessional conduct “of a character likely to deceive, defraud, or harm the public....” Your state nursing practice act will have similar provisions that your state nursing board has the authority to enforce with license discipline up to suspension or revocation. Do not minimize or ignore the potential impact on your nursing license of your restraining order issue. Instead, get our help now to head off the worst impacts and preserve your license.
The Difference Between Proceedings
Keep in mind the substantial difference between the two proceedings: (1) the restraining order case in family or criminal court and (2) your administrative state nursing board license proceeding, especially when recognizing your need to retain local criminal or family court defense counsel for the first proceeding while retaining our highly qualified attorneys for the second proceeding. A restraining order proceeding is a court proceeding in which the judge has broad authority to craft and issue general and specific restraints on your conduct. You may face an order preventing you from contacting the complaining party, ousting you from your home, keeping you from accessing a common workplace, and preventing you from removing items or accessing financial accounts. By contrast, your state nursing board proceeding will involve only an administrative officer or panel with limited authority to affect your nursing license and limit or curtail your nursing practice. Restraining orders can be general. Licensing outcomes generally only directly impact your nursing practice.
Nursing Board Disciplinary Sanctions
Be aware of the license disciplinary sanctions that you may face in your state nursing board administrative proceeding triggered by your restraining order issue. State nursing board disciplinary officials generally have wide latitude to impose progressive discipline in any one case, all the way from a simple caution up to permanent license revocation. That discretion makes our strategic and effective defense representation especially important to your licensing outcome. Go it alone or with unqualified representation, and you could lose your license. Retain us to present your best possible defense case, and you may maintain your license without discipline or restriction. Under nurse practice acts like the one in place in Illinois, state nursing boards generally have the authority to impose any of the following range of progressive sanctions over restraining orders or similar disciplinary grounds:
- cautions or warnings;
- private or public, written or oral reprimands;
- probation requiring evaluation, counseling, and monitoring;
- peer review of fitness;
- fines and restitution;
- license limitations, conditions, or restrictions;
- license suspensions for a certain or indefinite duration; and
- permanent license revocation with or without reinstatement.
The Possibility of License Reinstatement
If you have already suffered license suspension or revocation, then we may be able to help you gain your license's reinstatement. Nursing practice acts sometimes grant state nursing boards authority to reinstate a license, often limiting reinstatement to certain terms and conditions. Section 45:1-7.4 of New Jersey's Uniform Enforcement Act, for instance, authorizes the New Jersey Board of Nursing to reinstate a nurse's license after payment of all fees, completion of all continuing education requirements, and an otherwise satisfactory showing to the Board that the nurse has met all conditions and requirements for reinstatement and is fit for nursing practice. Whether you have the possibility of license reinstatement may depend not only on your state nursing practice act and implementing regulations but also on the specific facts and circumstances of your restraining order and license disciplinary case. The expiration of the restraining order and your continued compliance with all laws in the peaceful performance of all professional and personal obligations may support a strong case for license reinstatement. Let us help you evaluate your reinstatement opportunities and help you make the necessary case.
What Else You Have at Stake in Board Proceedings
When determining to retain our premier license defense attorneys, you do well to keep in mind the other stakes, beyond your nursing license and current nursing practice, that you may have in your license proceeding. If you hold a nursing license or licenses in other states, you could lose those licenses under discipline of your license in your current practice state. You could also lose your opportunity to renew or gain other nursing licenses or licenses in other healthcare fields, depending on the grounds for the restraining order and your nursing license discipline. If you lose your nursing license permanently, you lose your nursing career in which you have invested so much and from which you expect reasonable rewards and returns. Loss of your nursing career can have major impacts on your personal and family finances and relationships, as well as on your mental, emotional, and physical health. It isn't too much to say that your world could come crashing down with nursing license discipline. Let us help you avoid those severe collateral consequences to nursing license discipline. Let us make your best defense for retaining your license.
Nursing Board Reporting Requirements
The question may arise whether you must report your restraining order issue if your state nursing board hasn't already discovered it and notified you of a license disciplinary proceeding. State nurse practice acts do not uniformly impose self-reporting requirements. Instead, the nursing license renewal form your state nursing board requires you to complete may ask you to disclose court cases, court orders, criminal charges or convictions, and similar issues that could trigger a disciplinary investigation. Do not misrepresent or fraudulently conceal your restraining order issue on any such renewal form that clearly requires your disclosure. Doing so could result in credential fraud and disciplinary charges against your license and result in license suspension or revocation. Tennessee Code Section 63-7-115, for example, authorizes discipline for a nurse's credential fraud in seeking or renewing a license. In other words, the coverup can be worse than the crime. Instead, consult our attorneys about your self-reporting requirements if you have any doubt about your obligation. We can help you determine when, whether, and how to disclose your restraining order issues.
How Else Nursing Boards Discover Issues
If you do not disclose your restraining order issue to your state nursing board, someone else may do so, whether a patient, the patient's family member, a professional colleague, or an employer. Other nurses and healthcare professionals may have a duty under your state's professional licensing laws, rules, and regulations to report your suspected unfitness or misconduct. Section 43-26-51 of the Georgia Nurse Practice Act, for instance, requires mandatory reporting by nurses who suspect nursing colleagues of misconduct warranting discipline. Your employer may have its own reporting duty. Section 43-26-52 of the Georgia Nurse Practice Act, for example, imposes that very requirement on nursing employers. Nursing boards may also check criminal and civil case filings to discover disciplinary grounds and monitor public media reports. State nursing boards have many ways to discover restraining orders or other disciplinary grounds involving their licensed nurses. Let us help you evaluate whether, when, and how to disclose your restraining order issue.
Nursing Board Investigation of Restraining Orders
State nursing boards typically assign an experienced investigator when discovering information about a nurse's suspected rule or standard violation. The investigator on a disciplinary matter involving a restraining order would likely first obtain and review the court records relating to the restraining order. The investigator may then interview the complaining witness, any caseworker, and any law enforcement officers who are able to disclose their information. The investigator may also obtain and review police reports and their witness statements, photographs, medical records, and other investigatory materials to evaluate the disciplinary charge. The investigator may also seek your interview, where you generally have a duty to cooperate and a strong interest in doing so. We can help you prepare for your interview and help you present your exonerating and mitigating documentation at the interview. The investigator may then prepare a report recommending charges or dismissal of the complaint. Our representation can be critical to your early success at the investigation stage. Do not delay in retaining us.
The Effect of Restraining Order Outcomes
You may wonder what effect your win or loss in your restraining order matter may have on your state nursing board license proceeding. The two proceedings, (1) your restraining order case in the civil or criminal court and (2) your administrative licensing proceeding, are independent, before different decision makers under different standards and procedures. However, a favorable outcome in your restraining order case may make our proof of your fitness for nursing practice easier in your license disciplinary proceeding. If your restraining order is temporary and expires during the license proceeding, that development may also encourage disciplinary officials to dismiss their proceeding or reduce or eliminate any license sanction. Conversely, a continuing restraining order may influence the state nursing board to pursue discipline and impose a serious sanction. Let us help you deal with either result.
Retaining Qualified Counsel in License Proceedings
Your temptation may be to retain the family lawyer or criminal defense lawyer representing you in your restraining order proceeding for your state nursing board licensing defense. Do not make the mistake of retaining unqualified license defense representation. The family court or criminal court in which you face the restraining order issue has different rules, procedures, and requirements than the administrative license proceeding that your state nursing board brings to discipline your nursing license. Our premier license defense attorneys know the administrative rules and procedures, as well as the best tactics and strategies for license defense. Unqualified counsel may do more harm than good in your license proceeding. Get our highly qualified help for your best licensing outcome. Your nursing job and career are worth protecting.
Coordination and Cooperation Between Counsel
While you need different attorneys with different knowledge, skills, and experience for each of your two proceedings, (1) the restraining order case in civil or criminal court and (2) the administrative license proceeding, you can fully expect us to cooperate with your other counsel and even coordinate certain aspects of your dual defense. Our attorneys can share exonerating and mitigating evidence that they identify and acquire with your restraining order attorney for use in your other proceedings. Our attorneys may also seek to delay your administrative license proceeding while your restraining order attorney seeks dismissal of the restraining order or other favorable resolution of that court case. Two heads can certainly be better than one, especially when each attorney or attorney team offers different knowledge, skills, and experience fitting to the two different forums.
Restraining Orders Involving Nursing Practice
The possibility exists that you may face a restraining order proceeding not over a family issue or other issue outside of your nursing workplace but instead arising directly out of your nursing practice. Plainly, a restraining order case arising out of your nursing practice will likely gain the prompt and urgent action of your state nursing license board because of the patient and facility risks. Indeed, your patient or your patient's family members may be the ones to seek the restraining order if, for instance, they believe that you engaged in patient abuse, patient fraud, patient sexual contact or exploitation, or other inappropriate or endangering behavior. You may not have done anything of the sort but may nonetheless face those allegations based on a mentally ill patient's delusions or an angry and offended patient's misrepresentations in retaliation. Colleagues may also seek restraint if they believe that you have injured, threatened, defamed, or otherwise offended them. Employers may also seek restraints if they desire to terminate your employment and prevent your return to the facility over theft, abuse, disruption, or other allegations.
Our representation of you in any such state nursing board proceeding triggered by a restraining order or restraining order request for workplace conduct is especially important, indeed critical. Your state nursing board cannot treat such a complaint as unrelated to nursing practice, as it might treat a family law or other outside matter. Retain us immediately if you face any such allegations, even before any party seeks a restraining order. We may be able to mediate a resolution that preserves your nursing license and, if not, your nursing employment.
Board Procedures Over Licensing Issues
All is not lost if your state nursing board discovers your restraining order issue and pursues related disciplinary charges. Your state nursing board cannot generally suspend or revoke your license without providing due process of law. You have constitutional rights to fair notice and a fair hearing before an impartial decision-maker before the state nursing board deprives you of your property and liberty interest in your nursing employment. State nursing practice acts and their regulations typically recognize and reinforce those constitutional rights, often referring to state administrative procedures acts. Section 335.006 of Missouri's Nurse Practice Act is an example, assuring nurses facing license suspension or revocation of an administrative hearing and other protections. We can help you invoke similar protections under your state's nursing laws, rules, and regulations, with the goal of maintaining your nursing license in good standing, notwithstanding your restraining order issues.
The Attorney's Role in Nursing Board Procedures
Do not underestimate the value of our attorneys' representation in your nursing license proceeding. Administrative license proceedings are typically complex, often with obscure rules, customs, and conventions. We know those particulars and have the strategic skills and substantial experience to invoke them effectively. We may be able to arrange an early informal conference at which to negotiate the state nursing board's voluntary dismissal of disciplinary charges on our evidence, exonerating you from the restraining order allegations or mitigating their impact. If your matter proceeds to formal charges, we can invoke your formal hearing rights, prepare the hearing brief and evidence, and present and cross-examine witnesses at the hearing for your best hearing outcome.
If you have already lost your formal hearing and suffered license sanctions because of your restraining order matter, we may be able to appeal those findings and sanctions to the full board of nursing or a civil court, as your state's administrative procedures act provides. Our appeal arguments may result in the reversal of sanctions and restoration of your nursing license. No matter the present status of your license proceeding, let our attorneys evaluate and pursue your next step until you have exhausted all possible relief and obtained your best possible outcome.
Premier Attorneys for Nursing License Defense
The Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team is available for your strategic and effective defense representation of licensing issues arising out of restraining orders and proceedings. Our skilled and experienced attorneys are available to represent you, no matter your nationwide location or the cause of your restraining order issue. We have helped hundreds of nurses and other professionals retain their licenses against all kinds of disciplinary charges, including charges relating to restraining orders. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our premier license defense representation.