Our lawyers have acted in dozens of professional disciplinary investigations and prosecutions. If a complaint has been made about you, you are facing an investigation or you have been prosecuted, please get in touch with our team.
Professional Disciplinary Prosecutions
A huge number of jobs in New Zealand are professionally regulated. From medical professionals, lawyers, real estate agents and teachers through to social workers, plumbers, gasfitters and drainlayers, all have a regulatory body that consumers, the public or other professionals can lay a complaint with.
The risks are real
A professional complaint is a serious matter. Not only is your reputation on the line but there can be significant and even career-ending consequences.
Not all professional disciplinary regimes are the same, but almost all include penalties such as a censure, fines, suspension or even expulsion from the profession. And, after all that, the decisions are often reported in the media for all to see.
The complaints process can be long
A complaint about a professional will often progress through several stages before the outcome is known.
The process starts with a complaint being made. Once a complaint has been received by the regulator, there may be an initial triage where the complaint is either referred on or dismissed.
If it is referred on, and the circumstances are exceptionally serious, the regulator can seek your immediate suspension from the profession pending the outcome of the complaint.
The usual course is for the complaint to be considered by a Committee (for example a Complaints Assessment Committee, a Professional Complaints Committee or a Standards Committee).
Committees like those will often have the power to deal with low-level complaints by deciding to take no further action (bringing the process to an end) or imposing a low-level penalty.
If the complaint is dealt with by a Committee, not only will any penalty be at a lower level, but it is more likely that the complaint will be resolved anonymously (not on the front page of the newspaper).
In more serious cases, the Committee will refer the complaint to a Tribunal as a charge of professional misconduct. It then acts as the prosecutor before the Tribunal (against you as the defendant).
The Tribunal is a mini-Court process. The Tribunal is usually made up of lawyers or retired judges, members of the profession you belong to and, in some cases, lay people. They will hear evidence and submissions, and decide whether the charge has been proved.
If the charge is proved, the Tribunal will determine the level of your professional misconduct, the appropriate penalty, whether your name should be suppressed (or whether it can be published in the media) and how much you should pay towards the costs of the prosecution.
You are not powerless in the process: we can help
When a complaint is made about you, it can often feel like a process that is happening to you, rather than a process you are a participant in.
Engaging us to represent you will change that.
At every stage of the process, you have the right to be provided with all relevant information and to provide a response to the complaint.
We can help you to:
- ensure you have all relevant information, including information that may undermine the complaint;
- give you clear advice about your legal position;
- represent you in your initial responses to the complaint, before the Committee and (if it comes to it) before the Tribunal;
- put your side of the story;
- test the prosecution’s evidence at trial; and
- make legal submissions on your behalf.
If you are unhappy with the way a regulator, Committee or Tribunal has dealt with a complaint, we can help you to appeal the decision or seek judicial review in the High Court.
Engaging us early is important. If a complaint has been made about you, get in touch with our team for a confidential conversation today.
The content of this article is general in nature and not intended as a substitute for specific legal advice.
