christopher-k-mcnally

A lawyer near me

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 13:54:53 GMT

What should you ask for an internet search for a lawyer

When people need a lawyer, what do they do? In the old days, they opened the yellow pages and searched the listings until they found a local attorney with a nearby office. But when was the last time you saw the yellow pages? These days you may know a lawyer, and call them directly. You may even have them on speed dial. (If you do, please accept my condolences.) You may ask a family member or a friend to recommend a lawyer. But more and more people go to their computer or their smartphone and search for a lawyer.

But what do you ask? Most people ask Google or another search engine for “a lawyer near me.” That may be a good search if you have a hearing in front of a local magistrate or justice of the peace. But “a lawyer near me” may not be what you should look for. Why not?

First, lawyers concentrate on certain subjects of the law. The more a lawyer does something, the better that lawyer gets. The more a lawyer learns about a subject, the more effective and efficient that lawyer becomes. Often legal subjects don’t have geographic boundaries other than the state where the proceeding, claim or transaction occurs. The law that governs the subject matter is likely to be exactly the same no matter where you live. The lawyer with the most experience and skill in the legal subject that concerns you may not be “a lawyer near me.”

There’s a more important reason why you should not search for “a lawyer near me.” With advances in technology, it becomes less important for you to meet your lawyer face-to-face. In fact, the lawyer who has the most experience and skill to serve you may not need to ever meet you in person. The best lawyer for you may be across town, on the other side of the state, or on the other side of the planet. You can get all of your legal needs served by telephone, email, text message and internet.

Instead of searching for “a lawyer near me,” look for a lawyer who with specific experience in your subject matter. Then from those lawyers you find in your search, find out whether that lawyer has a client portal that allows you to communicate and access your case file 24/7. Find out whether that lawyer takes payments online, and if so, whether they add a credit card processing fee or whether they pay the fee themselves.

A third reason not to look for “a lawyer near me” is cost and convenience. If you can get a lawyer with more experience and skill who can serve you from the convenience of your own home, why travel to an office? Why take time out from your busy schedule to meet somewhere else? And why pay for the lawyer’s expensive monthly office rent? The quality of your legal service is not dependent on any of those factors. Make it easy on yourself and get better results by searching for a lawyer who concentrates on your legal subject matter.

Denied Day to Day Substitute Teaching Permit? A new case explains how it works

Sun, 26 Mar 2023 21:08:37 GMT

On March 24, 2023, the Commonwealth Court issued a decision that pulls back the curtain on how the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Bureau of School Leadership and Teacher Quality (Bureau), Division of Certification Services (Division), processes your application for a day to day substitute teaching permit.

On March 24, 2023, the Commonwealth Court issued a decision that explains the process that the Pennsylvania Department of Education, through its Bureau of School Leadership and Teacher Quality, Division of Certification Services, uses to evaluate applications for emergency day-to-day substitute teacher permits. The decision also interprets key provisions of the Public School Code related to teaching certificates or permits. The case is also helpful to people who apply for other licensed professions and occupations, like nurse licenses, cosmetologist licenses, pharmacist licenses, funeral director licenses, and paramedic certificates, to understand how state boards and agencies that issue licenses do their work.

This is a lengthy blog article, but the opinion is 29 pages. I have added some headings so if you’re in a hurry you can jump to my commentary. If you want to read the opinion in its entirety, you can find it at this link: 894CD21_3-24-23.pdf (pacourts.us)

CASE HISTORY

The case involves a man, Robert Tuerk, who had been licensed as an attorney in Florida and Pennsylvania. In 1996 his Pennsylvania law license was suspended because when he applied for admission to the bar in Pennsylvania he didn’t disclose a prior expunged arrest from 1985. In 2016, his law license was suspended in Florida, and then he was disbarred, meaning that he permanently lost his law license in Florida. Based upon his disbarment in Florida, Tuerk was disbarred in Pennsylvania.

In January 2019 Tuerk applied for an emergency day-to-day substitute teacher permit. The application included the question, “Have you ever had any certificate or license for any profession denied, revoked, suspended, surrendered or received a public reprimand in this or any other state, territory or country?” Tuerk answered, “Yes.” PDE did not act upon this first application.

At the start of the next school year, August 2019, Tuerk submitted a second application with the same response. The Bureau of School Leadership and Teacher Quality asked Tuerk to provide additional information related to his law licenses. He did. In December 2019, four months and eight days after he submitted the second application, the Bureau issued a letter to Tuerk, signed by the Deputy Secretary and Commissioner for Postsecondary and Higher Education, in which the Bureau notified him that his application had been denied under Section 1209 of the Public School Code. This is a common procedure in state licensing agencies. These are sometimes referred to as a “provisional denial letter” or “provisional denial notice.”

That law prohibits the Department of Education from issuing a teaching certificate to a person who “does not have good moral character.” The Bureau noted Tuerk’s suspensions, that he failed to accept responsibility for his actions, and that the most recent disbarment had occurred in February 2018.

GOOD MORAL CHARACTER ISSUES

In my experience with people who apply for or already have a teaching certificate or other professional licenses, the most common reason for a challenge on good moral character is a criminal history, but disciplinary action for a professional license is another common basis for a licensing agency to act on the basis of good moral character. In theory, an agency could be other facts that trigger such a review, such as a history of civil suits that allege fraudulent conduct or a breach of professional responsibility. However, that is a rare occurrence, and would most frequently arise in medical and health care professions.

HOW DOES AN AGENCY REVIEW APPLICATIONS?

Tuerk appealed the denial of his application. The Department conducted a hearing. A designated hearing officer admitted into evidence several documents, including five character reference letters for Tuerk. Tuerk also testified in his own behalf. Tuerk admitted that he had been disbarred, but described his violations with terms like “regret,” “faux pas,” “misjudgment,” an “inadvertent mistake.” He testified about his volunteer activities as evidence of his personal reform, and that he had been truthful on his applications for a teaching permit.

The Division of Certification Services had a witness, a “Certification Specialist,” who testified about the process she follows to review certification applications. The Certification Specialist testified that an application that is complete may be processed in as little as four weeks, but when “good moral character” is an issue the processing time increases to eight weeks to six months. Each year there are at least 1,000 teaching certification applications reviewed for good moral character. One Certification Specialist reviews all of the applications that require a review for good moral character. Part of the review for good moral character is to request that the applicant provide documentation.

DO I NEED TO PRODUCE ALL OF THESE DOCUMENTS?

In my experience, state licensing employees typically ask for court records in the case of an applicant with a criminal history, or agency records if there is a history of professional licensure discipline. Some of these requests can be overbroad and unduly burdensome. For example, it is typical for a request for “certified copies” of all court records. In my opinion, certified copies are unnecessary and unduly costly. An application is made subject to penalties for perjury or unsworn falsification to authorities, so an applicant has a duty to be truthful and may not falsify or modify records that are submitted in support of an application. Certification adds nothing to the accuracy or admissibility of the documents. Certification also adds cost and for a large court file, the costs of reproduction and certification of an entire court file may be very expensive. If the court file is in the archives, it can takes days or weeks just to pull the file. Finally, a request for an entire court file would include many pages of documents that have no relevance to good moral character. The documents that a licensing board needs are the Criminal Complaint, the Affidavit of Probable Cause, the Indictment or Information, a copy of the docket, the Judgment of Sentence and Sentencing Order, and, if the defendant pleaded guilty, a copy of the Guilty Plea Colloquy. Inclusion of subpoenas to witnesses, or motions for continuance, for example, adds expense for the applicant and no pertinent information for the agency. Unfortunately, there is very little that you can do to challenge the breadth of a request, and it may delay or stop completion of the review of an application. In many cases, especially if you are likely to successfully pass a good moral character review, it’s simply better to bite the bullet and provide all of the requested documents.

WHO DECIDES TO DENY AN APPLICATION FOR GOOD MORAL CHARACTER?

In Tuerk’s hearing, the Certification Specialist testified that it was her job to gather documentation and provide it to the Deputy Secretary to make a determination. In my experience, an individual at the level of a cabinet secretary or deputy secretary will receive the advice of an attorney employed by the state, or possibly another higher level assistant, who will evaluate the documents and draft a letter for the signature of the secretary or deputy secretary. The secretary or deputy secretary will review the draft and either sign it or ask for revisions. In some agencies, this duty is delegated entirely to an attorney for the agency.

Ideally, this decision-making process follows an established, well-defined factors to distinguish applications that are denied versus those that are granted. Using defined factors to make the decision assures consistency, meaning that similarly situated applicants are treated the same. Defined factors also make the decision-making process faster and easier, and less likely to be overturned by a court.

Unfortunately, the Department of Education and other agencies don’t always follow the ideal. The good news is that Act 53 of 2020 now requires agencies like the State Board of Nursing, State Board of Pharmacy, State Board of Vehicle Dealers and Salespersons, the Real Estate Commission and other licensing boards within the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs to use a list of 10 factors to assess an individual’s criminal history. https://www.dos.pa.gov/ProfessionalLicensing/Pages/ACT-53-2020.aspx#assessments Although not required to do so, the Department of Education and other state agencies should follow a similar set of factors when they assess good moral character in order to respect each individual’s right to due process of law.

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE HEARING

After the hearing, the hearing officer issued a “proposed adjudication and order.” Tuerk filed “exceptions,” which is a document that a party explains what errors he or she thinks are in the proposed decision. By this time, the Deputy Secretary had left his position and was replaced temporarily by an Acting Deputy Secretary who affirmed the provisional denial.

ADMISSION OF WRONGDOING

The Acting Deputy Secretary made findings of fact based on the evidence and found Tuerk to be “not credible” or not believable. In cases where an individual’s good moral character is at issue, whether based on prior professional discipline or criminal history, one of the primary things that the licensing board or agency official looks for is an unqualified, candid admission of responsibility. When a licensee or applicant hedges or makes excuses, it may cause the decision-maker to believe that the person hasn’t really learned a lesson and hasn’t reformed.

In my experience, this is a common mistake made by licensees and applicants. Despite any personal reasons or considerations that a person may have, if you want a license, you need to swallow your pride and simply and briefly accept responsibility. This serves two purposes. First, it satisfies the requirement for a “forthright acknowledgement of wrongdoing.” Second, by making a simple, brief and unqualified admission of responsibility, the applicant or licensee can move on to other topics that are more favorable to your case. Understand that the law does not require a prolonged expression of anguish. The operative phrase is a “forthright acknowledgement of wrongdoing.” Simply stating under oath, “I committed the [crime or violation] and I accept full responsibility” satisfies the standard.

There may be circumstances when a fuller statement is appropriate. For example, I have seen applicants or licensees who have done a lot of soul searching, who committed very serious crimes at a time in their lives when they were living a bad life. They may want to unburden themselves at a hearing to have a chance to express their sorrow and regret. There’s nothing wrong with that, and, in fact, can be very helpful and supportive of an application or the defense of a license. However, even a very remorseful, sorrowful person must make that unqualified, simple admission of guilt.

This is also an important consideration in terms of protecting the public from unscrupulous or incompetent professionals. A person who doesn’t accept responsibility and who makes excuses for their past conduct is a person who may be more likely to take advantage of vulnerable clients, patients, students or customers, or who may be more likely to be careless in the work that they perform resulting in injury to others.

Tuerk raised several other issues, all of which were dismissed by Commonwealth Court.

If you would like to discuss your application for a professional or occupational license, such as nurse license, pharmacist license, real estate license, teaching certificate, or other type of professional license, contact me for a free consultation. Thanks for reading!

Refunds for Application Fees

cmcnallyesq@attorneymcnally.com (Christopher McNally) — Mon, 20 Feb 2023 22:45:23 GMT

Can I get my money back for my license application fee?

On January 31, 2023, the newly-inaugurated Pennsylvania Governor signed an executive order that establishes some ambitious new goals for the bureaucracy under his control. You may have read about this in the news, or heard about it on TV or radio. There's a little more to the story, though.

Under Executive Order 2023-07, each agency in Harrisburg under the Governor's direction that issues any type of license must submit a catalog within 90 days (May 1, 2023) that lists all of the licenses issued by that agency, how the applications for licenses are processed, the fees charged by the agency, and the agency's recommended processing time for completed applications. After the agencies submit their catalogs, the Governor will set recommended "efficient application processing times" for each license application.

The Governor's Executive Order then says that if an agency doesn't process an application within the recommended processing time, then the agency must refund the application fee "to the extent permitted by law."

Well, there are few important conditions that prevent this new policy from being a genuine reform. For example, according to this executive order the processing "shot clock" is only begins to run when an application is "complete." As many people who have been through the application process know, the bureaucracy may keep calling you back to ask for more documents, more information, or some corrections. Recently, one agency asked a client that I represent to get a certified copy of every piece of paper in a 20-year-old court case! So it takes time for the courthouse to retrieve the old file from the archives and then there's the expense of getting a certified copy of the entire court file! The applicant even had to produce documents that aren't relevant to the application !

Then there's this big qualifier: "to the extent permitted by law." Already, some lawyers inside the state bureaucracy doubt that any agencies are "permitted by law" to refund application fees. In fact, the statutes that govern these agencies generally require the agency to charge an application fee. That's because the application fees are meant to fund the operations of the agency by the people or companies that use the agency's licenses, rather than dip into taxes to pay for those expenses.

To further emphasize this final point, the next to last paragraph of the Executive Order says that it's not creating any right or benefit that is enforceable by any party against the Commonwealth.

So what does this mean for the public and what can you do?

As the Boy Scouts say, "Be prepared." Or if you prefer the United States Coast Guard or Latin, "Semper paratus" ("Always prepared.")

As a general rule, when dealing with a licensing agency, disclosure is better than omission, and more is better than less. For example, if you have a criminal history, tell the agency all about it, even if it happened a long time ago, or even if it's minor. Unless the application gives you specific instructions not to report certain matters (traffic offenses or expunged cases, for example), put it in your application. Better to disclose it than to risk being accused of hiding something later on. And if you do have a criminal history, include information that shows how you've changed your life and turned things around. If your application is denied, you'll need that information any way, so work on it sooner rather than later. Give the agency letters of recommendation from your clergy, your 12-step group sponsor, or your teachers.

Or if you are licensed in another state and you aren't sure whether you can get a reciprocal license in Pennsylvania, you can put together the documents and information that support your application and do it early.

And you can always call me or contact me by email. Initial consultation is free and if you're on a limited budget, we can discuss how you and I can work together in a way that fits your budget. The Client Portal that I offer is an excellent way to communicate and to share documents and communicate. It's fast, it's easy and it's cost effective.

Thanks for reading. I hope this helps you.