Michigan Professional Licensing Criminal Defense Attorney

Michigan Criminal Charge/Conviction & Impacts on a Professional License

When a licensed individual is facing a criminal prosecution, the consequences can last far beyond any criminal penalties. At Kronzek & Cronkright, PLLC, we are called upon to represent doctors, lawyers, day care providers, nurses, CNA's, teachers, builders, real estate professionals, Certified Public Accountants, and other licensed individuals. In many of those cases, we have to be concerned about both the criminal case and the potential life-altering loss of a professional license.

If you have a professional license, you need an aggressive attorney to protect you. We protect our clients aggressively, from Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, and Traverse City; we are Michigan's premiere criminal defense firm.

Depending on the profession or industry, many licensed individuals have a duty to report a criminal charge or conviction to their professional licensing board often within a certain period of time. Others may only have a duty to report an actual conviction.

The School Safety Act requires school employees and prospective employees—including teachers, contract workers, and many others—to report both to the employing school district and Michigan Department of Education within 3 business days of: (1) being arraigned for any felony charge and certain misdemeanor charges, and (2) upon conviction. This is quite worrisome, because many criminal defendants have not hired an attorney at the time they are arraigned and may be given no notice of this strict reporting requirement. School employees who fail to give this notice can face another felony or misdemeanor charge just for not reporting their original charge.

Also, nurses and other health professionals must report a conviction within 30 days of a conviction date to the Health Regulation Division of the Michigan Bureau of Health Professions. Professional license suspensions are automatic if the conviction is for a felony or a controlled substance offense.

There are many more licensed professions in Michigan whose practitioners may be required to report a criminal charge or conviction. These include doctors, lawyers, counselors, police officers, firefighters, and many more.

For many people, the tendency may be to try to keep a criminal charge or conviction a secret from their employers for fear that they will lose their jobs. However, non-reporting of violations of the law can lead to more criminal charges for certain people. If you have been charged with a crime, we recommend hiring expert criminal defense attorneys to help you determine whether you must report your charge or conviction, when you should do so, and how you should do it.

The attorneys at Kronzek & Cronkright, PLLC are experienced and effective at both criminal defense and professional license defense.