Summary Suspension of a Professional License in Massachusetts
If you’ve received an Order of Summary Suspension, call (978) 273-8337 today.
A summary suspension takes your license away before any hearing on the complaint, usually as soon as you receive the order. You can’t practice, and your income may stop overnight. But the law requires the Board to give you a prompt hearing, in most cases within about seven days, on whether the suspension was necessary. What happens in that week often decides whether you’re back at work in days or out of practice for months.
Fast, focused representation when your license is suspended.
I’ve been a registered respiratory therapist since 2005 and a registered nurse since 2010. As a respiratory therapist I spent many years at the bedside providing hands-on respiratory care. As a nurse I’ve worked in critical care and the intensive care unit of an acute care hospital, and I’ve held management roles in that setting. In a summary suspension, the Board’s case rests on affidavits about clinical events, impairment or patient safety, and I can read that evidence the way a clinician does.
— Richard Alan Gaudet, JD, RN, RRT
What a summary suspension is
Normally a board can’t take your license without a hearing. Summary suspension is the exception: a board can act first, based on affidavits or other documents, when it finds your continued practice is a threat to public health, safety or welfare. The suspension lasts until the complaint itself is resolved, unless it is lifted after the post-suspension hearing.
It’s an emergency remedy, and boards reserve it for serious situations. Typical triggers include:
Impairment or drug diversion: a positive test, missing controlled substances, or impaired practice at work
Serious patient harm, or a pattern of unsafe care
Sexual misconduct allegations
Arrest for a serious crime, especially one involving patients, drugs or violence
Practicing in violation of an earlier Board order or agreement
Two standards: “immediate and serious” vs. “serious”
Most Massachusetts health boards use two tiers:
Immediate and serious threat: the board can suspend at once, without hearing from you first.
Serious threat: the board must first order you to file opposing affidavits or other evidence within three business days, and decides only after reviewing them.
If you receive an order to file opposing evidence, you have three business days to keep your license. Treat it as the most urgent deadline in the whole case.
Summary suspension rules by board
Board
Two-tier standard?
Hearing on the suspension
Source
Medicine
Yes; 3 business days to oppose a “serious threat” order
Within 7 days
243 CMR 1.03(11)
Nursing
Yes; 3 business days to oppose
Within 7 business days
244 CMR 7.05
Respiratory Care
Yes; 3 business days to oppose
Within 7 business days
261 CMR 4.05
Dentistry
Yes; 3 business days to oppose
Within 7 business days
234 CMR 9.05
Physician Assistants
Yes; 3 business days to oppose
Within 7 business days
263 CMR 6.05
Pharmacy
Single standard: “immediate or serious threat”
Within 7 days
247 CMR 10.07
Psychologists
Single standard: public health, safety or welfare “necessitates”
Within 7 days; if not held, the license is deemed reinstated
251 CMR 1.08
The Pharmacy Board can also issue cease-and-desist and quarantine notices that stop or restrict a pharmacy’s or licensee’s operations, or bar the use of medications a pharmacy prepared. These aren’t discipline, and a hearing on whether they’re necessary must be offered within 15 business days (247 CMR 10.08).
What the order contains
Under the Respiratory Care, Dentistry and Physician Assistant rules, for example, an Order of Summary Suspension must (261 CMR 4.05(3); 234 CMR 9.05(3); 263 CMR 6.05(3)):
Tell you the license is suspended effective when you receive the order, until further notice
Give the date, time and place of the post-suspension hearing
Include a copy of the request for suspension, with the affidavits and documents behind it
Arrive by first-class mail and by a service that delivers within 24 hours
Those affidavits are the Board’s whole case at this stage. Read them the day the order arrives.
The post-suspension hearing
The hearing is a formal proceeding under G.L. c. 30A, usually run by an administrative hearings counsel. It asks only whether the suspension is necessary, that is, whether your continued practice presents an immediate and serious threat and suspension is needed to prevent it. It doesn’t decide the underlying complaint.
Under the template rules used by several boards, the hearing officer may admit (261 CMR 4.05(4)(c)):
The Board’s request and its supporting affidavits and documents
Relevant evidence you present
New evidence from prosecuting counsel, but only if it was disclosed to you before the hearing
That means the hearing is your chance to answer the affidavits: records that tell a different story, witness statements, an independent evaluation in an impairment case, proof of treatment or monitoring, or a plan that addresses the Board’s concern.
The continuance trade-off
You can ask to postpone the hearing to prepare. But under the template rules, the suspension stays in effect while the hearing is postponed at your request (261 CMR 4.05(4)(b)). Sometimes extra time to get an evaluation or witnesses is worth it; sometimes it only extends the suspension. Decide that with your lawyer, not by default.
After the hearing
The hearing officer issues a tentative decision, or a status report, within 30 days (261 CMR 4.05(4)(d)).
The Board then issues a final decision. If it finds no immediate and serious threat, or that suspension isn’t necessary, it rescinds the suspension and restores your license to its earlier status.
If it finds both, the suspension continues until the underlying complaint is resolved, by consent agreement or after a full hearing.
If you don’t appear, you default, and the Board adopts the facts in its request as its findings (261 CMR 4.05(5)(b)).
At the Psychologists Board, the rule is stricter on the Board: if the hearing isn’t held within seven days, your license is deemed reinstated (251 CMR 1.08).
Your first 24 hours
Stop practicing immediately. Practicing after a suspension is a separate ground for discipline, and often a more serious one than the original complaint.
Write down when and how you received the order, and find the hearing date in it.
Check whether the order asks you to file opposing evidence within three business days. If it does, that is your first deadline.
Call a license-defense lawyer today. There is no time to shop around after day two.
Read the affidavits and documents attached to the order, and make a list of everything in them you can show is wrong or incomplete.
Start gathering evidence: your records, schedules, witness names, and, in an impairment case, the name of an evaluator or treatment provider.
Ask your lawyer before you tell your employer anything beyond the fact that you can’t work. What you say can become evidence.
Notify your malpractice carrier if your policy requires it, and ask about license-defense coverage.
Is there an alternative to a contested hearing?
Sometimes. Several boards’ rules allow a consent agreement in which you agree to refrain from practice while the complaint is resolved (for example 261 CMR 4.04(4)). It can be negotiated on terms, such as an evaluation or monitoring plan that leads back to practice, and it may avoid a public finding that you were a threat. It can also last longer than a suspension you could have defeated. The right choice depends on the strength of the Board’s affidavits.
What comes after
Whatever happens at the post-suspension hearing, the underlying complaint continues: an investigation, possibly a consent agreement, or a full hearing on an Order to Show Cause. The evidence you develop in the first week, and the record of the post-suspension hearing, will shape that case too.
License suspended? Call today.
Call or text (978) 273-8337, or send a message. I represent licensed professionals across Massachusetts, in person at my Middleton office or by video.
Frequently asked questions
How quickly do I get a hearing after a summary suspension? At most Massachusetts health boards, within seven days or seven business days of the suspension, depending on the board. At the Psychologists Board, if the hearing isn’t held within seven days, the license is deemed reinstated.
Can I keep working until the hearing? No. A summary suspension is generally effective when you receive the order. Practicing while suspended is a separate ground for discipline.
What if the Board orders me to file opposing evidence? That means the Board found a “serious threat” but hasn’t suspended you yet. You generally have three business days to file affidavits or other evidence before the Board decides.
Does the hearing decide the whole case? No. The post-suspension hearing decides only whether the suspension is necessary. The underlying complaint is resolved later, by agreement or after a full hearing.
Should I ask to postpone the hearing? Only after weighing the cost. Under several boards’ rules, the suspension stays in effect while a hearing is postponed at your request.
Richard Alan Gaudet, Esq. is a Massachusetts attorney at the Law Offices of Richard Alan Gaudet, LLC in Middleton, Massachusetts, and an experienced administrative law practitioner who represents licensed professionals in board investigations, responses and hearings. He has been a respiratory therapist since 2005 and a registered nurse since 2010, including in critical care. He earned his J.D. in 2020 and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in January 2021 and to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in 2021. He is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association. Reach him at 978-273-8337 or rgaudet@gaudetlawoffice.com. Office: 35 Village Rd., Ste 100, Middleton, MA 01949.
ABOUT THIS ARTICLE
This article was prepared by a Massachusetts attorney and is provided solely for general informational and educational purposes directed to members of the general public. It does not constitute legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. The law applicable to any particular situation depends on the specific facts and circumstances of that matter. Readers are encouraged to seek the advice of a licensed Massachusetts attorney before taking any action.
