Interim Suspension Orders
State agencies have the legal authority to petition to restrict or suspend your professional license on an interim basis until the time a full hearing can be held. To do so, the agency must make a preliminary showing that you are subject to professional discipline and that allowing you to continue to practice pending a full hearing on the charges would threaten public safety.
If your licensing agency files a petition seeking an interim suspension order, ordinarily you must be given at least 15 days notice of a hearing that will decide whether your license should be suspended pending a full hearing. If an interim suspension order is granted after a hearing on the petition, the licensing agency must file an accusation against you within a shortened timeline, which depends on the agency or board and the particular statutory authority under which they are proceeding. If the state agency does not file an accusation within the required number of days of the interim suspension order, the order is dissolved.
However, immediate suspension of your license on shortened notice, often only 24 hours, is possible if the agency’s petition can demonstrate that serious injury might result to the public before the matter could be heard on notice.
Many state agencies have specific legal authority in some form of the above language in their specific agency statutes. For example, Govt. Code Section 11529 provides the Medical Board of California specific authority to petition for interim suspension orders.
Agencies may also proceed using temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions granted after a hearing before a Superior Court judge.