If you hold a professional registration or licence in New Zealand, a complaint to your regulator can put your career, your income and your name at risk. We defend registered professionals through every stage of the disciplinary process, from the first letter to the tribunal hearing and beyond. We are based in Wellington and act for professionals throughout New Zealand. Most of these processes run nationwide, and many steps happen in writing or online.
Who this affects
Dozens of occupations in New Zealand are regulated by law. If a complaint is made about you, a statutory body can investigate you, charge you, and in serious cases suspend or cancel your registration. That includes:
- Doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, dentists, physiotherapists, psychologists and other health practitioners, who answer to the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal
- Teachers and early childhood teachers, who answer to the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal
- Licensed building practitioners, electricians, plumbers, gasfitters and drainlayers, who answer to their licensing boards
- Real estate agents, who answer to the Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal
- Immigration advisers, who answer to the Immigration Advisers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal
- Social workers, vets, valuers, surveyors, engineers, accountants, financial advisers, security personnel and others
The names change from profession to profession. The shape of the process does not.
The five stages of almost every disciplinary process
- The complaint arrives. From a client, a patient, a parent, an employer, a competitor, or the regulator itself. In some professions your employer is required by law to report you.
- Screening. The regulator decides whether the complaint warrants investigation. Weak complaints can be knocked out here, but someone has to make that argument.
- Investigation. A committee investigates and decides whether to lay a charge. You have a right to respond before that decision is made. This is where most cases are actually decided, and where good advice does the most work.
- The tribunal hearing. Usually public. The tribunal decides whether the charge is proved and what the penalty should be, and can order you to pay a share of the costs.
- Appeal. To a court, within a strict time limit. An appeal does not automatically pause the penalty in the meantime.
Interim suspension can happen at any point along the way, sometimes before you have been heard.
Your regulator, your page
- Health practitioners and the HPDT
- Teachers and the Teaching Council
- Licensed building practitioners
- Real estate agents and the REA
- Immigration advisers and the IACDT
- Suspended from work pending an investigation
Why an employment lawyer
Most disciplinary cases do not arrive on their own. They arrive tangled up with an employment problem, and the two processes feed each other.
If you are dismissed, or resign while under a cloud, your employer may be legally required to report you to your regulator. Teachers and health practitioners are the clearest examples: those reporting duties are set by statute, and a settlement agreement cannot switch them off.
It runs the other way too. What you say to your employer’s investigator can end up in front of your regulator. In some professions the regulator can require your employer to hand over information about you. An admission made to close out an employment issue, often on advice that it is the sensible commercial thing to do, can become the foundation of a disciplinary charge.
That is why the most important decision in many cases is a sequencing decision: what to say, to whom, and when. We advise on the employment problem and the regulatory problem together, because in practice they are one problem.
The eight questions clients actually ask
Will I lose my registration?
Usually not. Cancellation is generally reserved for the most serious cases. Most matters end well short of the tribunal, and most tribunal cases end in something less than cancellation. But the risk is real and it needs to be managed from day one.
Do I have to answer their questions?
You have a right to respond, and usually a right to be heard before key decisions are made. What you say matters enormously. Get advice before you answer anything.
Can I keep my name out of it?
Sometimes. Hearings are generally public and decisions are generally published with names. Suppression can be granted, but it must be applied for, the deadlines are short, and the threshold after an adverse finding is high.
Who pays for this, and what if I lose?
You pay your own defence costs, and if a charge is proved you can be ordered to contribute to the regulator’s costs as well. If you win, you generally recover nothing. In some cases legal aid or your indemnity insurer may help. Check early.
Can I just resign and make it go away?
No. In most regimes the regulator keeps jurisdiction over former practitioners, and resigning while under investigation can itself trigger a mandatory report.
I was dismissed, or acquitted, or I settled. Isn’t that the end of it?
No. The regulator runs its own process with its own test. A settled grievance, a clean employment exit or even a criminal acquittal does not stop it.
How long will this take?
Months at least, often longer. Early resolution is one of the strongest reasons to engage properly at the investigation stage rather than waiting for a hearing.
Do I have to tell my employer? Will they find out?
Often yes, and often they already know, because in several professions the complaint started with them or they are required to assist the investigation. How and when your employer is involved is part of the strategy.
Talk to us before you respond
The cheapest wins in professional discipline come early. The first letter you send is often the most important document in the whole case.
Andy Bell is an employment lawyer at Lane Neave. He acts for registered professionals across New Zealand facing complaints, investigations, disciplinary charges and the employment problems that come with them. The first consultation is free, and confidential.
This page is general information, not legal advice. Every disciplinary regime has its own rules and deadlines. Take advice on your own situation before acting.