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Our client is a California OT, who was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) for the second time. The DUI was not work related and a psychologist determined that our client does not have an alcohol problem. |
We sued the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) because it suspended the Medi-Cal “provider status” of a registered nurse who had never actually been a Medi-Cal provider. The DHCS blacklisted the RN by including the nurse on a list of individuals barred from employment by Medi-Cal facilities. This unwarranted action prevented our client from working in all California hospitals and as lawyers who defend nurses we took action to remedy this.
We previously wrote about our victory appealing (by writ of administrative mandate) discipline against a registered nurse solely because of a single off-duty DUI conviction. See RN With Single DUI Wins in Superior Court—Nursing Board Appeals. In that case, the Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) ordered the revocation of our client's RN license subject to a stay of the revocation and probation for three years with employment supervision requirements.
In 2012, the California Court of Appeal will decide whether the Board of Registered Nursing can order an RN to serve probation because of a single DUI conviction. This appeal comes after our second successful petition for writ of administrative mandate in San Francisco Superior Court.
A California registered nurse (R.N.) was convicted of alcohol-related reckless driving after being charged with driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI). The conviction was a first-time offense, and there was no evidence of alcohol abuse or dependence.
Nevertheless, the Board of Registered Nursing demanded that the nurse submit to a psychological evaluation, physical evaluation, random urine tests, and substance abuse rehabilitation. Since there was no evidence of any alcohol problem, we believed that the conditions demanded by the Board were unreasonable.