As an engineer or land surveyor, you are expected to uphold high standards of professionalism and ethics. Therefore, a slight error in judgment could lead to the Board of Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists questioning your suitability to continue practicing. With the time and cash you have invested in acquiring the relevant training, skills, and professional license needed to become a certified engineer or land surveyor, you must not allow a single misstep to pose a risk to your source of income. The potential risks of the licensing board’s disciplinary actions could be serious, including a citation on the professional record, license suspension, or revocation. If your license is facing a potential threat because of a complaint made against you to the board, you must enlist a proven and experienced defense attorney to represent you.

Riverside License Attorney has many years of experience defending professionals facing complaints and investigations and provides efficient, sound legal representation, prompt and creative problem-solving communication to all clients. We can assist you by collecting evidence, interviewing and compiling witnesses’ testimonies, representing you during hearings, and handling the appeal process.

Responsibilities of Land Surveyors and Engineers

The Board of Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists classifies engineers into professional, geotechnical, and structural.

Engineers are usually categorized into different groups, including the following:

  • Civil engineers

  • Electrical engineers

  • Fire protection engineers — They are mandated to identify, evaluate, correct, or prevent potential and present fire hazards in communities and buildings.

  • Industrial engineers

  • Manufacturing engineers

  • Nuclear engineers — Nuclear engineers must apply nuclear physics principles to use atomic phenomena for humanity’s benefit and safeguard the public from radioactive material and radiation.

  • Chemical engineers

  • Traffic engineers — As a traffic engineer, you are trained to measure travel, traffic, and human factors associated with traffic flow and generation. You should use your knowledge to plan, evaluate, and operate highways and streets, as well as learn about lands and interrelationships with different travel modes.

  • Corrosion engineers

  • Metallurgical engineers

  • Safety engineers — They are responsible for identifying, eliminating, and controlling threats to property and people.

  • Petroleum engineers are tasked with exploring, recovering, locating, and exploiting natural fluid hydrocarbons.

  • Soil engineers are tasked with investigating and evaluating earth materials like rocks, groundwater, artificial materials, and soil and their interaction with civil engineering works, structural foundations, and earth retention systems.

  • Control system engineers

As a land surveyor, you will collaborate with the municipal planning committee, contractors, and miners to plan different projects. They will use your data, maps, and guidance to make significant decisions. You should also use natural topographical features to do the following:

  • Keep infrastructure at appropriate distances from buildings.

  • Avoid electrical cords and pipes.

  • Research legal documents like titles.

Board’s Responsibility and Mission

The Board of Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists protects the consumers' lives, health, property, and welfare by regulating the practice of professional engineering and land surveying. The licensing board’s mission includes:

  • Licensing qualified people as professional engineers and land surveyors

  • Anticipate modifications in the engineering and land surveying professions to ensure the rules and regulations are contemporary, relevant, and responsive.

  • Establishing rules and upholding professional ethics and conduct

  • Enforcing rules and regulations

  • Providing detailed information to the public to help them make informed decisions on how to use professional engineering and land surveying services best

Violation That Can Lead To Disciplinary Action By The Board

Several forms of wrongdoing can lead the licensing board to initiate disciplinary hearings against your engineering or land surveying license. Typical complaints filed against California licensees include:

  • Professional misconduct

  • Drug or substance abuse, especially while working

  • Appropriating an expired seal or utilizing another individual’s seal

  • Ignoring summons from the licensing board

  • Insufficient site investigation

  • Fraudulent activities

  • Miscalculations or going against current codes

  • Failure to inspect or verify construction designs

  • Gross negligence

  • Citations for unlicensed engineering work

  • Working with unregistered assistants

  • Not maintaining the evidence to prove continuing education

  • Failure to sign or seal engineering plans

  • Facing a conviction that considerably affects your professional ability to perform your job

Disciplinary Process

Like ordinary people from every walk of life, professional licensed engineers and land surveyors sometimes make errors. However, the alleged wrongdoing could be a mere allegation in some cases.

Suppose the licensing board decides there is adequate evidence to initiate a formal investigation against your license. In that case, it will issue a formal accusation (for license holders) or Statement of Issues (for license applicants). As an engineer or land surveyor, you must enlist the services of a seasoned administrative law lawyer immediately. Any complaint against you requires prompt response because the administrative hearings will take place within 15 days after receiving the board’s notification.

The board’s administrative proceedings are complex because they involve discovery, witnesses, subpoenas, and specific rules of evidence.

If the BPELSG contacts you regarding a formal complaint, you must immediately inform them that you intend to consult your lawyer first. You ought to collaborate with the board’s investigating official because failure to act could eventually lead to harsh disciplinary action. However, you should avoid incriminating yourself or needlessly limiting your defense options.

Most complaints result in a summary dismissal due to the presence of unsubstantiated or inadequate proof to proceed to the administrative hearing. The board could also dismiss other cases because they do not fall within the professional licensing board’s jurisdiction.

The BPELSG will prioritize the allegations they intend to investigate based on how severe or urgent the alleged wrongdoing is to the general public's safety. If the board determines the complaints are serious enough, it might issue an interim suspension order (ISO) pending the investigations.

In most cases, your attorney can secure a favorable stipulated settlement or even a case dismissal before initiating an administrative hearing. Nevertheless, if a hearing becomes necessary, your legal counsel should thoroughly prepare to contest the allegations, evidence, and witness testimony made against you. Your attorney will also present mitigating and exculpatory proof in your case's favor.

How to Effectively Work With Your Professional Defense Attorney

A seasoned license defense lawyer can present strong arguments against any allegations you face during the BPELSG’s disciplinary hearings. Your attorney will review your allegations of wrongdoing and develop defense strategies to effectively fight the misconduct.

You can also do the following once you receive a notification of formal accusation from the board:

Enlist An Attorney Immediately Rather Than Just Wait

Having an attorney in charge of your defense from the start of the case gives you a greater opportunity to pursue a quicker resolution of the accusations. It also increases the chances of realizing the best possible case outcome.

On the other hand, delaying hiring an attorney with an upcoming administrative hearing could make things more challenging for you.

Collect Relevant Case Documents

During the board’s disciplinary proceedings, you must present various documents to support your arguments against the alleged misconduct.

You could assist your lawyer in gathering and compiling all documents relating to your case in an orderly manner. Doing so will save your attorney valuable time so they can pay attention to developing a strong case defense instead of sorting out completely disorganized records.

Keep The Legal Matter To Yourself

You should not discuss the board’s disciplinary proceeding against you with anyone but your attorney because it could place you at risk of unwanted legal ramifications. Anyone you discuss the incident relating to your license with could leak those sensitive details to your professional licensing board, or the individual could even use the information to blackmail you. That person can be a loved one, friend, staff, or colleague. While you may be tempted to get things off your chest by discussing the issue with others, you should only have those discussions with your lawyer.

Implications of Signing an Order After Resolving the Matter Informally

You can informally solve your allegations by agreeing with the BPELSG. The licensing agency will impose specific sanctions, and you will waive the entitlement to continue to an administrative hearing. Only a few cases proceed to the hearing. Generally, these complaints involve serious misconduct accusations in which the BPELSG works to revoke the professional license.

The content of the order will depend on the nature and seriousness of your violation. It can also contain the sanction(s) in response to your allegation. Typical sanctions include the following:

  • Paying administrative fees

  • Completing additional training in certain subject areas or continuing education

  • Limitations on performance or practice of your professional responsibilities

  • Facing regular professional monitoring

  • Compulsory regular appearances before the BPELSG

  • Engaging in behavioral health or alcohol and substance abuse rehabilitation programs

  • Submitting to mandatory alcohol and drug testing

  • License suspension

  • Issuing a public reprimand

Your professional license legal counsel should help negotiate the order’s terms with the board. They should work to create an order that less impacts your personal and professional life.

After signing the order, the BPELSG staff will present it to your licensing agency for approval. After the approval, the order becomes enforceable and final. At this point, the terms outlined in your order bind you.

Violating the terms can lead to more severe consequences in the future. Consequently, signing the order could cause more severe sanctions than you would have faced in the first place. While signing the order might be an efficient and easy option, it might not always be in your best interests. Your retained attorney should consider your options and assess your situation to determine whether signing the order suits your needs.

The BPELSG could also accept the signed order with modifications or even reject it. If you disagree with your modified order or the agency rejects it, your case will proceed to the administrative hearing.

Typically, the order is a disciplinary measure that becomes part of your professional records with your agency. The board will publish notice of the disciplinary action on its newsletters and website, so the public will know about your accusation and the order.

Why You Should Not Ignore a Complaint Filed Against You to the BPELSG

Anyone can file an allegation that you have violated laws and regulations governing your profession or occupation. The complaint can result in a citation on your record, probation, ISO, suspension, or revocation. Here is why you should not ignore the allegation.

You Should Take the Allegation Seriously

You should take the complaint seriously even when you think the accusations against you are without merit. You should also respond to the board promptly, even if you believe the board will dismiss the case.

Failing to respond to the complaint before the agency's deadline is equivalent to failing to respond. Your professional career, reputation, and credibility are at stake in an investigation. Consequently, your failure to respond can result in irreparable harm and worsen the situation. The BPELSG will not dismiss the complaint because you decided to ignore it.

Moreover, the board will consider the failure to respond to the accusation promptly a different violation carrying additional sanctions and penalties.

Address Every Facet of the Complaint

On top of responding to your complaint, you should comprehensively respond to all allegations in the complaint. You should not leave, ignore, or skip any accusation unaddressed. Complete the response to all claims directly and thoroughly, even when you believe you adequately addressed the matter in a previous section of the response.

You should also not fail to respond to an accusation, even if you find it blatantly without merit or ridiculous. Your lawyer should help you draft the response(s).

Avoid a Default Order

The board can enter adverse findings against you by default by failing to respond to the complaint within the stipulated time frame. The agency can also impose sanctions it is recommending based on the violations you are accused of. Typically, the board will issue an order without scheduling a hearing or asking for your response or input.

Find a Professional Licensure Defense Attorney Near Me

As an engineer or land surveyor, you know how essential your job is. You are also tasked with the well-being and safety of every client you serve, which implies obtaining a license and keeping it in good standing. Nevertheless, when your conduct is questioned, it might mean your career, employment, and license are at stake. Not having legal representation can worsen the situation than your original allegations. You require an honest, knowledgeable, and skilled lawyer with an understanding of the licensing boards to get you the best results. With meticulous attention to detail, the legal team at Riverside License Attorney can investigate your case to uncover every legal option and offer services that match your specific needs. For more information on how to defend your license, contact us at 951-404-0569