Legal Question in Legal Ethics in New Jersey

Re: Misrepresentation when renewing a professional license

I will assume that you have given accurate and complete information. On that assumption:

I of course agree that this is outrageous, offensive and, more importantly, arbitrary and capricious in the legal sense and would be overturned by a Court.

The trick is to make the fight worth the result. I would be inclined to make a pretty agressive approach by letter demanding they change this decision, and then take steps to appeal it.

Be careful in this: if you hire an attorney on a flat fee, you will get a certain amount of the attorney's time, and then the attorney will be inclined to ignore or give little attention to your case. On an hourly basis, which is what I would charge, you have to be very careful to not spend more than you are willing to.

NJ State government officials are mostly decent, hardworking (Yes!) people who try to do the right thing. Not all of that large group of people will be so. NJ Dept. Environ.Protect. is notorious for fairly often giving slow, picky and uncaring responses.

You will be called on by your attorney to provide full and complete info; you must do so.

Please contact me if you would like to retain me. My contact information is given below my name.

Re: Misrepresentation when renewing a professional license

Greetings:

First of all let me say that I agree with Robert's post. Most state regulators are good intentioned and hard working people.

Having worked for a NJ regulatory authority on licenseing issues for six years, I can appreciate your predicament.

Since you do not practice in NJ anymore, please do not think that this is something that you should blow-off. You need to deal with this.

I do disagree with Robert on one point. I am not so sure this decision would be over-turned by a court. As a regulatory authority, the Board's decisions are given great weight by the court. There is a tremendous amount of deference given to their decisions. Arbitrary and Capricious is a tough standard to meet.

With all of that said, you need to deal with this problem. While the $$ is a concern, understandibly, you should be more worried about how this works out in the end.

Specifically, you should be worried about how the regulatory authorities in the states where you do practice will view this action in NJ.

In my opinion, you are better off trying to negotiate a reasonable resolution with language carefully tailored to limit your exposure in the other states in which you practice.

As stated before, I have several years of experience with licensing issues and regulatory authorities in NJ. If I can be of assistance please do not hesitate to conttact me, [email protected] or click on the Attorney Profile link for my phone number.

Regards.