Department of Health Senior Law Judge Summarily Suspends License

Recently a senior health law judge employed by the Department of Health summarily suspended the license of a mental health practitioner. The judge found, based on the evidence, that the practitioner represented an immediate threat to the health and welfare of the community. The mental health practitioner had sex with an adult female client on three occasions. The Attorney General’s Office claimed that the practitioner was a “predator” based on those facts. On the face of it, the decision does not appear entirely unreasonable.However, the facts do not support the decision. The first and obvious problem with the judge’s decision is that the practitioner had voluntarily declined to renew his license the year before. In other words, the Judge was suspending a license that did not exist. The Attorney General’s Office argued that the practitioner’s license should be “revoked” to prevent him from renewing his license. However, that argument fails to appreciate that the hearing to summarily suspend the license was not a license renewal hearing. It was a hearing to determine if a licensed professional represented an immediate threat to the community. And he was not licensed!The second problem is that the State failed to show that the practitioner was an immediate threat to the community, let alone the sole victim in the case. Arguably, the practitioner was not even a threat to her, as he had not made any attempt to contact her in over nine months by the time of the hearing. Last, the law requires that the suspension be narrowly tailored to the threat posed. The only evidence before the court was that the practitioner had allegedly had sex with an adult female. Accordingly, his license to practice, (again, assuming he actually had one), should have been suspended only with regard to providing services to adult women.The senior judge would have nothing of it and suspended the non-existent license. This case is currently under appeal. It does, however, show the importance of having competent representation at all levels of the disciplinary process. In this case, the practitioner decided to represent himself as it seemed like such a simple case. He found out the hard way that even simple matters require the assistance of an attorney. While no results can be guaranteed, the assistance of an experienced professional, such as the attorneys at the Rosenberg Law Group, PLLC, will increase the likelihood that positive results will occur and that the professional will be able to keep his or her license.