Professional License Defense and DOAH Administrative Hearings in Miami

These cases run on their own rules, under Florida's Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 120, Florida Statutes), and on their own clock. The single most dangerous mistake is letting the deadline to request a hearing pass.

We handle these cases from both sides:

• If you hold a license and are under investigation, have been served with an administrative complaint, or have been hit with an emergency suspension or restriction order, we defend you.
• If you were harmed by a licensed professional and want to report them, we explain how complaints are made and what happens next.

Dennis Gonzalez Jr. is a former Miami-Dade prosecutor who has been defending people since 2012. Our office answers 24 hours a day.

Who Regulates Your License

• Health care professionals are regulated by the Florida Department of Health and its professional boards. Discipline follows section 456.073, Florida Statutes.
• Many other professions, such as contractors, real estate licensees, and cosmetologists, are regulated by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) and its boards. Discipline follows section 455.225, Florida Statutes.
• Other agencies license other professions and businesses. The same Chapter 120 hearing rights generally apply.

How a License Case Moves, Step by Step

1. The complaint. The department investigates a complaint that is in writing, signed, and legally sufficient, meaning it contains ultimate facts showing a violation of the law or rules that govern the profession. The department can also investigate an anonymous complaint or a confidential informant's complaint in some situations, and it can open its own investigation when it has reasonable cause to believe a licensee broke a statute or rule. Once legally sufficient, a complaint can go forward even if the person who filed it withdraws it.

2. Notice to you and your first chance to respond. When an investigation starts, the department must promptly give you or your lawyer a copy of the complaint or document that started it. You may submit a written response within 20 days after it is served on you, and the probable cause panel must consider that response. There are exceptions: the department can hold back notice in limited situations, and it can investigate without notifying you if the act under investigation is a criminal offense.

3. Confidentiality. The complaint and the investigative information are confidential until 10 days after probable cause is found, or until you waive confidentiality, whichever comes first.

4. The investigative file. At the end of the investigation (in health care cases, once the department recommends a finding of probable cause), on a written request, you can inspect the investigative file or get a copy at your expense, and you can file a written response within the time the statute gives. This is often the best opportunity to correct the record before anyone votes on probable cause.

5. Probable cause. A probable cause panel of the board (or the department, where there is no board) decides by majority vote whether probable cause exists. Instead of finding probable cause, the panel may issue a letter of guidance. The department can also dismiss a case, in whole or in part, when the evidence is insufficient. For an initial minor violation, the department may instead issue a notice of noncompliance, which gives you 15 days to correct the problem.

6. The administrative complaint. If probable cause is found, the department files a formal administrative complaint and prosecutes it under Chapter 120. Under Florida law, no revocation or suspension of a license is lawful unless, before a final order, the agency has served an administrative complaint giving you reasonable notice of the facts or conduct involved and you have had an adequate opportunity to request a hearing. The complaint must name the statutes or rules you allegedly violated and the facts relied on, and must tell you that you have the right to request a hearing and to be represented by counsel.

7. Choosing your hearing: the election of rights form. The administrative complaint often comes with a hearing-request form that agencies and lawyers call an election of rights. That is a name used in practice; the phrase does not appear in the statutes or the uniform rules. What the rules require is this: your request for a hearing must identify the material facts you dispute. If you dispute none, it must say so. That choice decides the path:

• Disputed facts → formal hearing at DOAH. When there are disputed issues of material fact, a formal hearing is held before an Administrative Law Judge of the Division of Administrative Hearings.
• No disputed facts → informal hearing. When the facts are not disputed, the case goes to an informal proceeding, where you can present written or oral evidence or a written statement challenging the grounds for the agency's action. If a disputed issue of material fact comes up during an informal proceeding, the law provides for switching to a formal hearing.
• Settlement. A case can also be resolved by stipulation, agreed settlement, or consent order. In DOH and DBPR cases, any consent order or agreed settlement is subject to the department's approval.

8. The DOAH hearing. At a formal hearing, each side can present evidence and argument, cross-examine witnesses, submit rebuttal evidence, and submit proposed findings. The judge can issue subpoenas and allow discovery. Hearsay can be used to supplement or explain other evidence, but on its own it is not enough to support a finding unless it would be admissible over objection in a civil case. In health care cases, the statute makes the question of whether you violated the laws and rules of your profession, including the standard of care, a conclusion of law for the board, not a finding of fact for the judge.

9. The recommended order. After the hearing, the Administrative Law Judge sends the agency and the parties a recommended order with findings of fact, conclusions of law, and a recommended disposition or penalty. Each party then has 15 days to file written exceptions to it.

10. The final order. The board (with the probable cause panel members who reviewed your investigation excused), or the department when there is no board, issues the final order. The agency may adopt the recommended order. It may not reject or modify the judge's findings of fact unless it first reviews the entire record and states with particularity that the findings were not based on competent substantial evidence or that the proceedings did not comply with the essential requirements of law. It may not raise or lower the recommended penalty without reviewing the complete record and stating its reasons with citations to the record.

11. Judicial review. A party adversely affected by final agency action is entitled to judicial review in a Florida District Court of Appeal. The notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days after the order is rendered. Filing does not by itself stop the agency's decision, but when the decision suspends or revokes a license, a stay (called supersedeas) must be granted as a matter of right on reasonable conditions, unless the court finds that a stay would be a probable danger to the health, safety, or welfare of the state. The court reviews the record; it does not reweigh the evidence, but it can set aside or send back an order that rests on a finding not supported by competent, substantial evidence, on a material procedural error, or on a wrong reading of the law.

Possible Discipline

If the board, or the department, finds a violation, the statutes allow penalties that include refusal to certify an application, suspension or permanent revocation, restriction of practice, administrative fines, a reprimand, probation with conditions, corrective action, and the costs of the investigation and prosecution. Each profession's practice act may add its own grounds and rules. What penalty, if any, is imposed depends on the facts of the case.

Emergency Suspension and Restriction Orders

An agency can act before any hearing when it finds that an immediate serious danger to the public health, safety, or welfare requires emergency suspension, restriction, or limitation of a license. When it does:

• The agency must state in writing the specific facts and reasons for finding an immediate danger and why its procedure is fair.
• It may take only the action necessary to protect the public interest.
• Those findings of danger, necessity, and fairness can be challenged in court. The emergency order must tell you of your right to an immediate appeal.
• A regular suspension or revocation proceeding must also be promptly started. The uniform rules say that, unless the law provides otherwise, the agency must start administrative proceedings within 20 days after the emergency action.

In health care cases, emergency orders are issued by the State Surgeon General or a designee; in DBPR cases, by the Secretary of Business and Professional Regulation or a designee.

Emergency orders move fast. So should you. Call us the day you receive one.

The Deadline That Ends Cases Before They Start

• The notice controls. Florida law requires the agency's notice to tell you what hearing is available, how to request it, and the time limits that apply. Read it the day it arrives.
• The uniform-rule period is 21 days. Under the Uniform Rules, unless another law provides otherwise, a person who wants a hearing must file a petition with the agency within 21 days of receiving written notice of the decision, and a person who fails to file a written hearing request within 21 days waives the right to request a hearing. Some laws set a different period, so do not assume 21 days applies to your case. The time limit stated in your notice is the one to follow.
• Filed means received. Under the Uniform Rules, a document is filed when the agency clerk receives it during business hours. A document received after 5:00 p.m. is filed as of the next business day. Mailing it on day 21 is not the same as filing it on day 21.
• Extensions must be asked for in time. An agency may grant an extension for good cause, but the request must be filed before the deadline runs.
• A late petition is dismissed. The statute requires the agency to dismiss a petition that was filed late or that does not substantially comply with the rules. (The rules and statute preserve equitable tolling as a defense, but nobody should plan on it.)

If you have received an administrative complaint, count the days now, or call us and we will count them with you.

Criminal Charges and Your License

A criminal case and a license case often travel together, and what happens in one can decide the other.

• A plea can be grounds for discipline. Being convicted or found guilty of, or pleading guilty or no contest to, a crime that relates to the practice of, or the ability to practice, your profession is a ground for discipline, regardless of whether adjudication is withheld.
• You may have to report it. Health care practitioners and DBPR licensees must report a conviction, finding of guilt, or plea in writing within 30 days, regardless of adjudication. Failing to report is its own violation.
• Some pleas, and some arrests, require an emergency suspension. For health care practitioners, the Department of Health must issue an emergency order suspending the license after a guilty or no contest plea, conviction, or finding of guilt, regardless of adjudication, to certain offenses: felonies under Florida's public assistance chapter (which includes Medicaid), fraud chapter, and drug chapter; felonies under listed federal drug, Medicare, and Medicaid laws; listed federal offenses relating to Medicaid; felony reproductive battery; and felony homicide offenses. For a separate list of offenses, including sexual misconduct with patients or vulnerable people, sexual battery, kidnapping, false imprisonment, human trafficking, and offenses against children, the emergency suspension is required on an arrest alone, before any conviction. Massage therapists and massage establishments have their own arrest-based list, which includes prostitution offenses.
• Information flows both ways. The department may investigate without notifying you when the conduct is a criminal offense, and it may share its investigative information with law enforcement.

Before you accept any plea, know what it will do to your license. We look at both cases together. See our criminal defense pages on Unlicensed Practice of a Health Care Profession, Unlicensed Contracting, Health Care Fraud, Medicaid Fraud, and Insurance Fraud.

Want to File a Complaint Against a Licensed Professional?

If a doctor, nurse, contractor, real estate licensee, or other licensed professional harmed you or broke the rules, you can report them to the agency that licenses them.

• Put it in writing and sign it. The department investigates complaints that are written, signed, and legally sufficient, meaning they state facts showing a violation of the law or rules that govern the profession. The department may ask for supporting documents.
• Anonymous complaints can be investigated in some situations, if the complaint is written and legally sufficient, the alleged violation is substantial, and the department has reason to believe, after a preliminary inquiry, that it is true.
• Withdrawing does not necessarily end it. The department can keep investigating and the board can still act even if you later withdraw your complaint.
• The department must keep you informed. It must periodically tell you the status of the investigation and whether probable cause was found.
• In health care cases, you get more. If probable cause is found, the Department of Health must give you a copy of the administrative complaint, a written explanation of how the process works and how and when you can take part, and notice of any hearing where final action may be taken. If probable cause is not found, you must be told, and you have 60 days to give the department more information. At a formal hearing, the person who filed the complaint has the right to present oral or written communication about the alleged violations or the appropriate penalty.
• Good-faith complaints are protected. The law gives complainants and witnesses a privilege against civil liability for information they provide, unless they acted in bad faith or with malice.
• Confidentiality. The complaint and investigative information stay confidential until 10 days after probable cause is found, or until the licensee waives confidentiality.

A license case is about the license. If you were hurt and also want to be compensated for your losses, that is a separate question. Talk to us about both.

How We Defend a License Case

1. Read the notice and count the days. First the deadline, then everything else.
2. Answer early, and carefully. Your written response to the complaint and to the investigative file goes to the people who vote on probable cause.
3. Choose the right hearing. Disputing facts, or not, is a strategic decision that decides who hears your case.
4. Prepare for DOAH like a trial. Witnesses, documents, subpoenas, discovery, and cross-examination.
5. Protect the record. Exceptions to the recommended order and the record on appeal both depend on what was done at the hearing.
6. Coordinate with any criminal case. No plea without knowing the license consequences.
7. Negotiate when it makes sense. A consent order can sometimes resolve a case on terms you can live with, subject to agency approval.

Why Choose Dennis Gonzalez Law, P.A.

• Former Miami-Dade prosecutor.
• Defending people since 2012.
• Super Lawyers recognition and an Avvo Rating of 10.0.
• Bilingual office — se habla español.
• We answer 24 hours a day. Call (305) 209-0384.

You can read about some of our past cases on our Results page.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is DOAH?

The Division of Administrative Hearings is a Florida state agency whose full-time Administrative Law Judges conduct hearings in most cases where an agency is deciding a person's substantial interests and the facts are disputed. By statute, DOAH sits within the Department of Management Services but is not subject to that department's control, supervision, or direction. Its director, who also serves as chief judge, is appointed by the Administration Commission and confirmed by the Senate.

Is the Administrative Law Judge part of the agency prosecuting me?

No. DOAH describes its judges as not employed by the state agency involved in the case.

I got an administrative complaint. How long do I have?

Read the notice: the law requires it to state the time limit, and that is the deadline to follow. Under the Uniform Rules, unless another law sets a different period, it is 21 days from receiving written notice, and missing it waives your right to a hearing. Call us immediately.

Do I want a formal hearing or an informal hearing?

It depends on whether you dispute the facts. Disputed facts go to a formal hearing before an Administrative Law Judge at DOAH. If you do not dispute the facts, the matter goes to an informal proceeding. That choice should be made with a lawyer, before you file.

Can the board change the judge's decision?

The board issues the final order. It can adopt the recommended order, and it has limited power to change legal conclusions. It cannot reject the judge's findings of fact unless, after reviewing the entire record, it explains with particularity that they were not based on competent substantial evidence or that the proceedings did not comply with the essential requirements of law.

Can I appeal?

Yes. A party adversely affected by a final order can seek review in a District Court of Appeal. The notice of appeal is due within 30 days after the order is rendered.

My license was suspended by emergency order. What now?

The order must tell you of your right to an immediate appeal, and a regular proceeding must also be started. Call us right away.

Is there a time limit for the Department of Health to bring a case?

For health care practitioners, the statute generally requires the administrative complaint to be filed within 6 years after the incident, with exceptions, including for criminal actions, diversion of controlled substances, sexual misconduct, and impairment. Whether it applies depends on the facts.

How fast can you help?

Our office answers 24 hours a day. Call (305) 209-0384.