Chapter 1 Introduction

• Library: Missouri Professional Licensing (2018 Ed.)

Chapter 1

Introduction

The Division of Professional Registration is the parent agency of 41 professional licensing offices, boards, and commissions (referred to throughout this Guidebook as boards) regulating the professional conduct of 430,000 members of various professions in the State of Missouri. The Division of Professional Registration is assigned to the Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration.

The Supreme Court of Missouri described the purpose of professional licensing in Bird v. Missouri Board of Architects, Professional Engineers, Professional Land Surveyors & Landscape Architects, 259 S.W.3d 516, 518 (Mo. banc 2008). “‘Occupational licensing . . . is—or rather should be—a prophylactic measure, intended to save the public from being victimized. It is not—or, rather, it should not be allowed to continue to be—an economic weapon intended to strengthen the licensees’” (quoting Walter Gellhorn, Individual Freedom and Governmental Restraints 145 (Louisiana State University Press 1956)).

Many professionals go through an entire career without the need of an attorney in regard to training, application for license, licensure, and practice, but many need counsel at some point. Counsel can assist with obtaining a license or during an investigation or disciplinary matter involving a license. Counsel may also become involved in helping a member of the public make a complaint against a licensed professional. The biggest hazards to a practitioner handling these cases are:

· not knowing the law (statutes, regulations, and caselaw) of the profession;

· treating a matter involving a board as necessarily adversarial regardless of the issue; and

· missing deadlines specific to administrative law.

Although the mission of a board is to protect the public from incompetent practice, not to further the profession’s interests, boards are generally made up of other members of the same profession, so they understand the difficulties of practice.

The boards accomplish their mission through examination and evaluation of competency and by enforcing standards set forth in Missouri statutes, administrative rules, and caselaw.

Attorneys who do not regularly practice administrative law or before professional licensing boards should refer to or consult those who do so more frequently. Simply knowing more about the standard operating procedure of a particular board can be of great assistance.

This Guidebook provides an overview of...