Engineers and land surveyors are held to a higher ethical and professional standard due to the nature of their job. An error in judgment, if reported to the Board of Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists (BPELSG), can trigger a formal complaint and possible disciplinary action. Therefore, when faced with a complaint, it is advisable to retain the services of an experienced professional licensed defense attorney.
At Orange County License Attorney, we understand that the BPELSG’s disciplinary consequences can blackmark your reputation or deny you the capacity to practice, adversely affecting your livelihood. For that reason, we provide quality defense against the board’s allegations to safeguard your license and earnings.
The Critical Roles of California’s Engineers and Land Surveyors
BPELSG issues licenses to and regulates various professional engineers in California. The regulatory body holds professional engineers to a high standard and requires them to adhere to Title 16 requirements. It also categorizes engineers and their permits into three groups, including:
- Structural engineers
- Geotechnical engineers
- Professional engineers
The professional engineer’s category is subdivided into:
- Civil engineers
- Industrial engineers
- Nuclear engineers
- Agricultural engineers
Let us discuss the roles of the most common engineer categories in the state.
Geotechnical Engineers or Geologists
As a geologist, your duties entail analyzing soil samples collected from proposed construction sites, the ocean floor, and active volcanoes near eruption. Additionally, you are responsible for summarizing and preparing reports from field data. You use the analysis to offer clients valuable advice during consultations. Other roles you perform include:
- Monitoring seismic activity through the seismograph
- Assisting in the planning phase of various construction projects, such as bridges, dams, and tunnels.
Most of these projects are public infrastructure projects. Therefore, the safety of the public when using public infrastructure depends on your skills and knowledge. With a lot at stake, a simple mistake can lead to a lawsuit and disciplinary action by the BPELSG.
Land Surveyors
The roles of a land surveyor include:
- Researching titles and other relevant documents
- Maintaining infrastructure at appropriate distances from buildings and lots
- Leveraging natural topographical features
- Helping contractors and municipal planners identify underground pipes and electrical wires to avoid destroying them.
Your skills are highly relied upon by miners, municipal planning committees, and contractors in the planning stages of various projects. In the absence of your skills, many projects would never materialize due to unforeseen obstacles. By offering consultation services during the planning stage of these projects, you provide data, maps, and professional advice that ensure they run smoothly through completion. Unfortunately, one minor mistake in this profession could mean a project will not materialize or could lead to significant financial losses. So, BPELSG takes every complaint very seriously, and even a small oversight could cost you your license.
Civil Engineers
The duties of a civil engineer are to ensure that various structures, such as highways, bridges, seaports, sewage systems, tunnels, and runways, are constructed according to the plans to guarantee safety and efficiency. To acquire the ability to put your skills into use, you undergo rigorous education and training. Additionally, you must develop your math and logic skills, as these will be what you rely on to ensure the infrastructure is constructed as originally planned. With the high standards set in the engineering industry, graduating from school does not permit you to utilize your skills. You must undergo a lengthy licensure process with the BPELSG to test your skills and determine if you have what it takes to offer uncompromised services. Once the regulatory authority is satisfied and you can observe the industry’s high standards, they will issue you a license.
Even obtaining a license puts you under more scrutiny. One mistake is enough to trigger a disciplinary proceeding and threaten your license.
Mechanical Engineers
Another common category of engineers is mechanical engineers. Your role is to design, produce, and manufacture power-producing or transmitting machinery according to the specifications. Additionally, your work involves designing and producing components for equipment across various industries, including water, healthcare, and transport. You help design and manufacture aircraft engines, industrial power saws, nuclear power plant systems, and automobiles. To succeed in this industry, you must possess a natural technical mind, problem-solving skills, and develop logic and numerical skills. In your field, you partner a lot with fellow engineers and scientists in various projects. Despite being a critical pillar in the state, a complaint by a dissatisfied client can jeopardize your license.
If you are a land surveyor, geologist, or engineer and you have been notified of a pending investigation or formal accusation, you must act first and hire a competent engineer license defense attorney to protect your capacity to practice and income.
BPELSG’s Mission
BPELSG issues licenses to and regulates professional engineers. However, you should not be mistaken in assuming that the regulatory authority exists to protect you. In fact, BPELSG exists to protect the public’s health, safety, welfare, and property. It achieves this mission by setting competency and integrity standards and enforcing industry laws and regulations. From the board’s mission, you can deduce that it exists to protect your clients and Californians. Your role as an engineer or land surveyor is noble, and you should expect constant scrutiny from both the licensing authority and the public. This explains why even the best professional engineers still face client complaints.
Common Complaints Filed Against BPELSG’s Engineers and Land Surveyors
The board receives several complaints from your fellow engineers, dissatisfied clients, or members of the public regarding certain actions, comments, or wrongdoing. The most common allegations you will face in your profession include:
- Filing to provide proper project oversight
- Engaging in unprofessional behavior
- Breaching an engineer’s agreement
- Practicing without your license
- Operating outside the scope of your permit
- Engaging in fraudulent activity
- Not using a written contract
- Engaging in deceptive advertising
- Using an out-of-date seal or another engineer’s seal
- Hiring unlicensed assistants to work under you
- Developing plans or calculations outside the current municipal codes
- Refusing to complete a project that you have already started or received money for
- Gross measurement or boundary description errors
- Failing to participate or provide proof of participation in continuing education programs
- Failing to inspect a project to ensure it is done per the original design
- Violating the BPC, Professional Engineers Act, and other statutes regulating the profession
- Having a criminal conviction that impairs your capacity to perform your duties
- Being under a disciplinary proceeding by an out-of-state licensing authority
If a BPELSG investigator contacts you regarding any of these complaints or you receive an investigation notice, you should consult a license defense attorney immediately. Investigators will make you believe that they are on your side and just want to know your side of the story regarding the accusations.
BPELSG’s Disciplinary Process
BPELSG has the authority to impose disciplinary action on any licensee found in violation of the statutes and rules governing the profession. Nevertheless, you, the accused licensee, have a right to defend yourself in an administrative hearing and retain the services of a seasoned license defense attorney.
- Filing of a Complaint
The disciplinary process begins with a complaint filed against you by an aggrieved party. Many complaints are dropped summarily because they lack merit or sufficient evidence. Others are outside BPELSG’s jurisdiction, and the board has no mandate to investigate them. However, the board pursues the complaints that have merit and are within its jurisdiction. The investigators prioritize cases involving severe violations, especially egregious ones that threaten public safety.
If any accusation is grave and allowing you to practice could put your clients and the general public in greater danger, the regulatory authority can request an interim license suspension from the court until investigations are concluded. Even though the board takes this measure to protect the public, for you, the affected licensee, an interim suspension can harm your career for months or years while you are unable to practice, even though you have not been found guilty. If you have an experienced attorney in your corner, they will challenge the temporary suspension and compel the board to lift it.
- A Notice of Investigation
When the board decides to pursue your complaint, it will send an investigation notice, informing you that an audit, inspection, or accusation has triggered an investigation against your license. The notice will elaborate on the details of the complaint and request you to file a timely response. Disciplinary processes have strict timelines, and failure to meet these deadlines can lead to the loss of the right to defend yourself or automatic disciplinary consequences. So, if you are unfamiliar with the processes and deadlines, you should hire an attorney for guidance and to file the response.
It is not easy to write a good response because you must clarify the accusations, show good faith, and avoid providing information that could be used against you. Striking this balance is not easy for a person who has never filed a response before, making the role of an experienced attorney at this stage critical. An experienced attorney will ensure you cooperate without causing more trouble for yourself.
- Board Investigation
Depending on your response, the board may decide to drop the case or conduct further investigations. If they pursue further inquiries, an investigator will contact you requesting various documents and records. They can even request an interview. Do not have an interview with the investigator without the presence of your attorney. The investigator might be hoodwinked into thinking the interview is just a formality, whereas it is not. With the guidance of an attorney, you will cooperate with the investigation and avoid incriminating yourself.
- Informal Settlement Proceeding
If the investigations show that you engaged in a violation, the board will schedule an informal settlement hearing. Your legal representative will meet with the board representative to negotiate a settlement. The board representatives will have their lawyers, who will submit your allegations and the evidence against you, and guide the process. So, it is good to let your attorney represent you in the negotiations. A skilled attorney will negotiate a case dismissal or settle for a favorable stipulated settlement that does not hurt your capacity to practice. However, if no settlement is reached at this stage, the case will proceed to the administrative hearing.
- Administrative Proceeding
If the case goes to the administrative hearing stage, your license defense attorney will be adequately prepared to put up a solid defense. The attorney will gather evidence, witness testimony, and present mitigating circumstances to compel the ALJ to issue a favorable verdict, including an accusation dismissal.
Common Disciplinary Consequences
At the conclusion of the case, you will face various disciplinary measures if the board determines that the allegations are true. These disciplinary measures include:
- Suspension of your engineer or land surveyor’s license for a specified duration
- Revocation of your license for an indefinite period
- The imposition of a reprimand letter, citation, or fine for a minor violation
- License probation instead of a revocation. By staying a license revocation, you can at least retain your ability to practice even though under strict supervision and conditions.
Additionally, the prosecutor can pursue criminal charges in addition to the administrative hearing penalties.
Effects of Criminal Charges or Conviction on your Professional Engineering License
Engineers and land surveyors are humans and can make mistakes. Sometimes these mistakes can result in arrests and criminal charges. The common charges you can face in this profession include DUI, theft, domestic violence, sexual assault, insurance fraud, possession for sale, and simple possession.
Any involvement with the criminal justice system, especially if it results in a conviction, triggers professional discipline under BPC 490 and 6775b. A conviction for an offense that has a substantial relationship to your profession could result in license withdrawal or cancellation.
Even a criminal charge alone under PEN 23, without a conviction, can trigger the board’s disciplinary action. The board can request the judge presiding over the case to impose restrictions on your permit. The condition can be a suspension, revocation, or probation. The judge can impose these conditions as part of bail during pretrial release or sentencing conditions if you have been convicted.
So, when you face a criminal charge that substantially relates to your license, you need a license defense attorney with the skills to defend you in relation to the criminal case and the administrative proceedings.
Lastly, you can request expungement of your record if you are eligible. If the court grants the dismissal, you will be released from all the disabilities of a conviction, including the suspension or cancellation of your professional license.
Find a Seasoned Professional License Defense Attorney Near Me
If an accusation or BPELSG investigation puts your engineering and land surveyor license on the line, you should consult an experienced professional license defense attorney. At the Orange County License Attorney, we know that disciplinary consequences can severely dent your ability to practice, which is why we are here to guide you through the process and defend your rights. Additionally, our attorneys can help you with license applications and renewals. Call us today at 714-782-6386 to schedule a no-obligation consultation.
