Dental License Investigations And How An Attorney Can Help You When Facing Charges
The law allows patients to make complaints or bring claims against dental professionals. This is the case whenever they genuinely feel unsatisfied with their services. However, in some cases, you will find some patients wrongly accuse dentists of misconduct. In other cases, some dental professionals make false claims against their colleagues to tarnish their reputations. Ultimately, facing such allegations can lead to severe consequences that can hurt your career. Therefore, you must hire a dental license defense attorney to deal with the false allegations. Here is how the expert can help when facing these charges.
Instances That May Prompt Investigations
The dental board may commence an investigation against you when they receive a complaint about your conduct. This is often the case when a client accuses you of violating dental standards of care. For example, they might accuse you of misdiagnosis, wrong medicine prescription negligence, and unauthorized or inappropriate treatment. In addition, you will face investigations if there are complaints about poor office practices.
You can also expect an inquiry after a DUI, criminal charge or arrest, sexual misconduct, or workplace sexual harassment. If this is the case, please note that the people who conduct the investigations have years of experience. Therefore, you want to enlist the services of a legal advisor once you learn about the inquiry. This will enable them to start building a defense as soon as possible.
Penalties You Might Face
When facing a dental license investigation, a discovery that you have violated dental regulations can lead to an arrest. You may also have to appear in court to answer the charges when the state determines sufficient evidence of a violation. When this happens, you need to hire a lawyer to fight for you in court. This is because the dental board recommends very tough penalties for dentists who go against the profession's ethics.
For example, the board might recommend a license revocation or probation, citation, or citation with a fine. In most cases, these penalties can ruin your career if the judge accepts the board's recommendation. That said, you can avoid them by letting your lawyer argue your case in court. The expert will raise different arguments to challenge the evidence presented in court. For example, they will table information proving that the allegations against you are unfounded. In addition, they will get witnesses to testify for you and convince the court that you are innocent.
As you can see, a license investigation can have a devastating effect on your career. Therefore, you want to employ a dental license defense lawyer to mitigate the effects of such an inquiry. Reach out to a firm like Spiga & Associates to find out more.