What is a California License Lawyer?
A California license lawyer (also referred to as a California license attorney) is a legal professional who has been officially admitted to the State Bar of California and holds an actively represents other professionals whose right to practice depends upon approval from a state licensing agency. Medical professionals, contractors, real estate agents and other professionals must meet strict licensing requirements and maintain their licenses. A license lawyer guides their clients through the licensing process. These same agencies are active in regulating the practices and in imposing discipline. A license lawyer is expert in these areas as well.
The California Attorney General, through the Department of Justice (DOJ), provides legal representation (via Deputy Attorneys General in the Licensing Section) to over three dozen independent state licensing boards and agencies during disciplinary proceedings, license denials, and related administrative actions. This includes prosecuting cases on behalf of boards (mostly under the Department of Consumer Affairs, but also others) before the Office of Administrative Hearings.
However, these boards and agencies are not supervised by the Attorney General. They operate independently or under departments like the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA, which oversees about 36-40 boards/bureaus), Department of Insurance, or others. The Attorney General's role is prosecutorial and advisory, not supervisory or administrative oversight.
Examples of boards commonly represented by the AG's office include:
- Medical Board of California
- Board of Registered Nursing
- Contractors State License Board
- Bureau of Security and Investigative Services (BSIS)
For a full list of DCA entities, visit dca.ca.gov.
A license lawyer works in a murky world of administrative agencies that have boards of directors appointed by the executive branch of government (in California that is the Governor). These agencies pass laws but they are called regulations. The regulations are targeted to the profession that is supervised by these agencies. There is little supervision of these regulations and to contest these rules an expensive process of judicial review must be initiated. The public does not get to vote for the people who make these rules and rules can differ among agencies. For example there is a board in California that regulates osteopaths and another board that regulates all other medical doctors. There is no requirement that these two boards have the same rules. To a patient a doctor is a doctor but to the "doctors" the regulations may differ regarding important medical issues such as the prescription of pain killing drugs.
The Law office of Daniel Horowitz represents physicians, nurses, dentists, physicians assistants and other medical professionals in licensing matters. For an initial appointment call the Horowitz law firm at (925) 283-1863
