States issue licenses for the practice of many professions, with the goal of protecting the public by requiring certain training and experience before someone receives a license. Doctors, dentists, nurses, lawyers, veterinarians, engineers, nurses, midwives, funeral directors, pharmacists—all of these professionals, and many more, must be licensed by their state. If they aren’t, they may be guilty of practicing without a license.
Violations of State License Laws
Charges of practicing without a license arise in a wide variety of circumstances. Some people simply, and fraudulently, claim to be professionals when they are not. For example, someone who has a little medical training might pretend to be a doctor, seeing patients and writing prescriptions. Some people manage to get away with their charade for years or even decades.
There are less egregious violations, though; a lawyer who is licensed in one state, for example, might move to another and erroneously believe that the new job doesn’t require a license from the new state. Or a licensed professional might just forget to renew his or her license.
It can be especially difficult to establish whether someone is practicing law or not, because “practicing law” is so poorly defined. State bar associations (the bodies that license lawyers) have often claimed, in essence, that “doing what lawyers typically do” is the practice of law—a definition that some courts have found too vague to enforce.
Penalties for Practicing Without a License
State laws vary, but practicing without a valid, current license may be punishable by:
- Community service
- Fines
- Restitution
- Probation
- Jail or prison time
- Permanent loss of the license (if the violation was temporary)
As with all criminal convictions, the severity of the punishment depends on the circumstances of the violation, including the convicted person’s criminal history and the damage caused by the offense. For example, a woman who falsified a nurse’s license to get a job as a nurse was given a year’s probation, fined, ordered to repay her employer, and directed not to apply for or take any jobs involving nursing or caregiving. An unlicensed California engineer who used the engineer’s license number of a former employee on documents was charged with felony forgery; eventually he pleaded no contest to a lesser charge and was sentenced to three years’ probation and fined several thousand dollars.
Someone who actually caused a lot of harm—say, someone posing as a pharmacist and giving out medication without recognizing serious potential complications—could face much harsher consequences. Practicing medicine without a license is commonly a felony, punishable by more than a year in state prison and substantial fines. A phony doctor who causes serious harm is probably looking at more than 10 years in prison, depending on the state.
- If you have been charged with Practicing Without a License, Submit Your Case for a Free Review from a Criminal Defense Attorney.
