Being a licensed engineer or land surveyor is highly fulfilling. In addition to being an enriching career, your work is incredibly satisfying since you are involved in designing, planning, and creating beautiful, functional, and safe projects, including roads and buildings. However, a permit from the Board of Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists comes with many conditions. To keep your license, you must remain professional, competent, and reasonable when delivering your services to the public. When a mistake happens, or someone brings a complaint to the board against you, you risk losing your license and career.
Thus, it always helps to be prepared to defend your license. Knowing you do not have to do this alone is also a relief. Our license attorneys at San Bernardino License Attorney can help you navigate the administrative processes and develop a fighting strategy to protect your career and reputation. Thus, you can count on our advice, guidance, and support if you are under the board’s investigation in San Bernardino.
The Crucial Services of Professional Engineers in California
Engineering entails using mathematics, science, and engineering design processes to solve technical issues, increase productivity and efficiency, and improve systems. Thus, engineers are highly trained individuals with the right skills and mindset to perform various tasks across industries and sectors. The extensive training they receive enables them to perform technical and complex tasks that an ordinary person cannot. Training to become an engineer is also expensive and requires a lot of dedication. Once you train as an engineer, you must meet other local and state requirements to obtain a license. The license is a permit to offer quality services within the state.
After going through that extensive process to become a licensed engineer, you can lose everything if your licensing board is unsatisfied with your service delivery. This can happen if your customers complain of unprofessionalism, incompetence, or criminal acts like fraud or sexual harassment. Since these are severe allegations, the board takes stern action against anyone guilty. When a complaint is brought against you, you risk losing your license. Everything you have worked hard to achieve over a long period will be lost instantly.
The Board of Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists in California issues licenses to various engineers to perform various tasks across the state. Trained engineers who apply for a license must demonstrate dedication and willingness to abide by various statutes that govern their code of ethics. Violating these statutes can result in severe consequences, including losing a license you have paid a lot of money to obtain. Engineers are classified into three divisions: structural, geotechnical, and professional. Professional engineers are classified into civil, industrial, agricultural, and nuclear.
Land surveyors are a popular group of engineers in the state. Their services are crucial to miners, contractors, and municipal planners because they help these professionals plan various projects. Land surveyors use natural topography to make essential decisions, including how far apart infrastructures should be from buildings and how to avoid electrical cables and underground pipes when constructing buildings or roads. They also assist in researching land titles and other crucial documents to ensure they are with their rightful owners. As a surveyor, contractors rely on your approval to start projects. They will use your data, maps, and advice to make valuable decisions.
The role of a geologist is also critical. These professionals analyze soil samples to help in crucial decision-making. For example, they can determine a site’s suitability for construction based on its soil structure. They also analyze areas to assess their risk of volcanoes. They analyze and interpret other professionals’s fieldwork and offer valuable insights in consultations. Your work as a geologist is extensive. You could be hired to monitor a seismograph or to help plan the construction of tunnels, dams, and bridges. This means that the public relies upon your skills and knowledge for safety.
Civil engineers plan and execute the construction of crucial infrastructure like roads, tunnels, bridges, runaways, sewage systems, and sea ports. All these must be safe to keep the public safe for years. These are projects that must remain strong and functional for years. Thus, your training and skills are needed to make proper decisions and ensure the projects run smoothly and stay of good quality for decades. Your role entails planning, consulting with other experts and professionals, and supervising to ensure the projects are constructed according to the plans.
On the other hand, mechanical engineers offer critical advice, support, and assistance in constructing powerful machinery and plants that produce or transmit electrical power. They also find alternative solutions to industries' issues, including converting natural energy into useful or practical energy. Mechanical engineers also help to design and build automobiles, aircraft, and industrial power saws. Your expertise is critical in ensuring everything runs smoothly, especially in the production sector.
Regardless of how carefully you plan and execute your duty as a licensed engineer, you could make a mistake or fail to satisfy one or more people. When that happens, and a complaint is brought to the board against you, you risk losing your career. However, a license attorney can help you fight the allegations so you do not lose it all prematurely.
Complaints that Threaten Your Engineering License
The board receives complaints from different courses, including from the public, against engineers and land surveyors. Although it dismisses some of these complaints for lack of evidence or because they are minor, it takes most of these complaints very seriously. When that happens, the board starts investigating the matter to determine its authenticity and gather evidence. It conducts hearings to hear the evidence and the circumstances of the complaint and to give the final ruling on the matter.
When applying for an engineering license, the board requires you to understand your profession's code of conduct and regulations. It also issues a stern warning against violating any of these codes. This is because a violation puts your career at risk. It is also because the board’s mandate is to protect the public from unsafe and substandard services. When you violate any of the codes listed on its website, you put the public at risk of harm. The board must immediately protect the public and prevent further damage.
Thus, the board can act against you when someone files an allegation against you. Its focus would be on protecting the public and restoring their confidence in the board’s ability only to license professional and competent engineers. An attorney will defend your rights, and license, and support you. They will do so with your best interest in mind, ensuring your name is cleared in the most amicable way possible.
Some of the complaints that can result in an administrative process by the board include the ones listed here:
- Alcohol and drug abuse on the job.
- Discharging your services without a valid license.
- Exceeding the provisions of your permit when delivering services.
- Allowing or enabling unqualified assistants to work under your supervision without proper licenses.
- Failure to supervise projects.
- Failure to complete projects you have begun and had agreed to complete.
- Breaching contracts with consumers or other professionals.
- Ordinary negligence, gross negligence, or incompetence.
- Using false or misleading advertising practices to acquire clients.
- Failing to utilize written contracts.
- Any form of unprofessionalism.
- Violating engineering contracts.
- Violating the Business & Professions Code, the Professional Engineers Code, and other laws that apply to your profession.
How the Board Resolves Complaints and Allegations Against Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors
When the board receives a complaint against a licensed engineer, it starts by determining the strength of the case. If the complaint is minor, the board can dismiss it. The board also dismisses unsubstantiated allegations. However, it pursues credible allegations and could take action to prevent further violations and to protect the public.
If the board agrees to pursue your case, you will receive a notice of a scheduled hearing. You will be put under the board’s investigation and can face severe disciplinary action. You need help figuring out the implications of the allegations, possible penalties, and how to avoid losing your license. A skilled attorney will shed light on your case and help you plan a defense for your license.
The board can appoint an investigator to gather evidence to support your case. The investigator could contact you immediately after the investigations start to ask questions regarding the case. You can politely decline to comment on the matter without your attorney to avoid incriminating yourself. However, you must cooperate fully with the board to prevent steeper discipline.
You could have legal representation during the hearing to ensure you answer questions correctly. Your attorney will also interview witnesses and present evidence to counter the allegations. They could present mitigating factors, like your excellent performance record, to demonstrate your professionalism as a licensed engineer. This could force the board to reconsider revoking your license. If there is evidence against you, and your actions or inactions deserve disciplinary action, the board will take immediate action, depending on the severity of the allegations.
The board issues citations for minor offenses. A citation could come with a requirement to pay a fine to the board. The amount the board charges as fines depends on the severity of the allegation and your financial ability. However, your attorney can challenge the citation and the fine. If the citation is issued publicly and can impact your reputation, your attorney can fight it to protect your name and career. The attorney can also defend your reputation if the board issues a public reprimand against your unprofessionalism.
Some of the disciplinary actions by the board are grave and could impact your livelihood. For example, the board can place your license on probation. This means that you will be under its supervision for a particular period. You will also work under stringent conditions that can affect your service delivery. Your colleagues and employer will likely know about this, affecting your job and your ability to find work in the future. However, an aggressive attorney can help fight the probation or push for a reduced probation period with manageable conditions.
You will need your attorney’s help if the board suspends your license. This could happen if the board sees a need to give you a break to sort out some issues like drug addiction. Although the suspension is usually temporary, it will negatively impact your livelihood. You will not earn a living during that period, affecting your ability to support yourself and your dependents. Based on the case details, an attorney can challenge the allegation to do away with the suspension. Alternatively, they can negotiate a fair resolution of your case, where the board gives you a lighter penalty, like probation.
Sadly, a grave allegation can result in the revocation of your engineer license. When that happens, you will not work as an engineer anymore. Considering how hard it is and how much you have paid to obtain your license, this is a significant blow. Losing your professional license means that you will start afresh in a different field. This is the harshest action the Board of Professional Engineers takes. It also applies in cases where your negligence, incompetence, or unprofessionalism has caused severe damage to one or many people. An experienced license attorney can fight a license suspension for a more lenient discipline like probation or suspension.
Find Skilled Professional License Defense Services Near Me
Is your engineer or land surveyor license at risk for an allegation you face in San Bernardino?
You could lose your license if a credible complaint is brought against you by an unsatisfied or aggrieved client, employer, or colleague. However, an aggressive attorney will not allow an allegation to take a career that has cost you a lot of money, time, and effort to build.
We defend all kinds of professional licenses at San Bernardino License Attorney. If your engineering license is crucial to you and your clients, you will partner with us for support, guidance, advice, and defense. Since we are familiar with the administrative processes, we can help you navigate them successfully. We can also develop a solid defense against your allegations to force the board to dismiss your charges or resolve your case fairly. Call us at 909-966-4095 and let us work together for the best outcome.
