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Can a Utah Conviction Affect Your Professional License?

A conviction can affect your current professional license or your ability to get licensed in the future. To learn whether your license is at risk or not, or if you have to disclose a recent arrest or conviction, discuss your case with our attorneys in Utah.

The Utah Division of Professional Licensing (DOPL) can revoke a professional license for any conviction that substantially affects their profession. Licenses can be revoked for a wide range of unprofessional conduct, not just criminal convictions. You may be obligated to disclose an arrest or conviction, especially if you are a teacher or physician. Avoiding a conviction or having it expunged from your record may help prevent negative effects on your professional license.

For a free and confidential case review from our Salt Lake City criminal defense attorneys, call the Rhatigan Law Offices at (312) 578-8502.

Can a Criminal Conviction Affect Your Professional License in Utah?

Being convicted of an offense that substantially affects one’s ability to “safely or competently” do their work is reason to revoke or deny a professional license in Utah, according to Utah Code § 58-1-401(7). If the sole reason for your revocation or denial is a conviction, the Division of Professional Licensing must consider several other factors as well.

These additional considerations include the individual’s age at the time of conviction, the amount of time that has passed since the conviction, their employment history, education and training, and even recommendations.

The Division of Professional Licensing can revoke or deny a professional license for many more reasons, such as broad “unprofessional conduct.”

If a criminal conviction is far in your past and wholly unrelated to the professional license you are seeking, it may not affect a current or future professional license.

How Can a Criminal Case Affect Your Professional License?

Denials, suspensions, and permanent revocations are possible consequences of criminal convictions on professional licenses.

Denial

Suppose you are currently seeking licensing for your intended industry, whether that’s dentistry or nursing. Even if a previous conviction seems entirely unrelated to your industry, such as cosmetology, for example, the DOPL might deny your licensing for reasons adjacent to the conviction, but not solely the conviction.

Suspension

The DOPL can also suspend or restrict a professional license for the same reasons it can deny or revoke them. Suspension may occur after an arrest and before a criminal conviction, while the DOPL conducts its own investigation.

Revocation

The DOPL can revoke professional licenses entirely, which can be devastating for individuals who are already well-established in their careers, such as physicians, therapists, or educators.

Do You Have to Disclose a Conviction if You Have a Professional License?

Be transparent about a criminal conviction that is substantially related to your job when seeking a professional license from the DOPL for the first time or renewing your license. If you aren’t candid, there’s a greater risk of you losing your license altogether rather than it being temporarily suspended.

Some professional licenses are automatically denied for certain criminal convictions. For example, if you are prohibited from possessing a firearm, you can’t get a license to be an armed security guard. Sex offense convictions generally exclude individuals from becoming a licensed educator, marriage and family therapist, massage therapist, or physical therapist.

While you do not have to disclose charges that have been expunged, you do have to disclose any charges that have been dismissed. The DOPL urges you to report the following before you apply for a license:

  • Misdemeanors within the past 10 years
  • Felonies
  • Active or pending criminal cases, including arrests

How to Stop a Conviction from Affecting Your Professional License in Utah?

Let our Bountiful, UT criminal defense attorneys do what we can to stop a conviction from affecting your professional license.

Avoid Conviction

Stop a conviction from affecting your ability to get a professional license in the future by avoiding a conviction altogether. If you already have your professional license and are concerned about losing it and taking hits to your reputation, you may have an even larger incentive to avoid conviction.

Keep in mind that, even if you are not convicted, the DOPL might revoke your license for a wide range of unprofessional conduct, including a pattern of incompetency or negligence. You may have an easier time getting your license reinstated if you are found not guilty or if the charges are dropped.

Expunge Charges

The DOPL shouldn’t see any convictions you have expunged from your criminal record. Some expungements are automatic in Utah and occur within five years or more after an individual’s case is closed. You may be eligible to file for expungement even sooner than that proactively, so ask our lawyers if you can erase a previous mistake from your criminal record right away.

What Convictions Affect Professional Licenses?

While felonies are most likely to affect your professional license, certain misdemeanors may have similar consequences.

Crimes of Violence

Defendants who are convicted of violent crimes typically lose their professional licenses. Defendants may also be unable to get a license for assault, battery, domestic violence, or murder convictions.

Sex Offenses

The DOPL might view a previous sexual offense conviction as an impairment to your ability to perform job responsibilities safely, and might deny your license application for massage therapy, physical therapy, nursing, clinical mental health counseling, social work, and more.

Drug Offenses

Drug offense convictions, even for simple possession long in the past, might affect your ability to get a professional license to work in a pharmacy or other environment around addictive substances.

If you are currently working and licensed in nursing or substance use disorder counseling and are convicted of a drug offense, the DOPL might revoke your license.

Theft

Theft convictions can often impact professional licensing, particularly for individuals seeking their license for the first time or those renewing it. Even if you completed all aspects of your sentence and have never been arrested or convicted of a crime since, the DOPL might hesitate to approve your license application, depending on your intended profession.

DUIs

DUIs may also affect a defendant’s professional license, especially if someone is injured during an alleged drunk driving accident.

Call Us About Your Case in Utah Today

Call our Park City, UT criminal defense attorneys for help from the Rhatigan Law Offices at (312) 578-8502.