Los Angeles Doctor License Defense Lawyers

Los Angeles Doctor License Defense Lawyers

If you’re reading this, you probably just received that accusation letter from the California Medical Board – and now your entire medical career is at risk. Maybe your hospital privileges were suspended overnight. Maybe the DEA sent notification that your registration is under review. Maybe the investigator showed up asking to “clarify a few things” about your prescribing patterns. What’s actually happening – and it’s critical you understand this: the Medical Board isn’t trying to understand your side, they’re building a case to suspend your license permanently.

Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group. We are a second-generation law firm managed by Todd Spodek, and we have over 40 years of combined experience defending physicians facing Medical Board accusations in California and across the country. Our law firm has represented clients in your exact situation – doctors who thought cooperation would help, who signed voluntary surrenders they were told were “temporary,” and who lost everything. This article explains what happens in YOUR situation, what choices YOU have, and what outcomes YOU can realistically expect when the California Medical Board targets your medical license in Los Angeles.

What Happens in the Next 72 Hours

You opened the accusation letter. The charges look serious – prescribing violations, sexual misconduct allegations, billing fraud accusations – and you have 15 days to respond according to California Business & Professions Code § 2227. But what’s already happening that the letter doesn’t tell you: your hospital’s credentialing department got notified the moment the Medical Board filed. Cedars-Sinai, UCLA Medical Center, USC Keck Hospital – these institutions suspend privileges immediately when they see a Medical Board filing, even before you’ve had a hearing. Your income? It stops completely, and this is exactly what the Medical Board knows will pressure you into signing that voluntary surrender form without fighting.

Now the DEA gets involved. The Medical Board cross-reports to the DEA Diversion Control Division automatically under federal-state coordination requirements. If your accusation involves prescribing issues, your DEA registration goes under review simultaneously. You’re not just fighting the state Medical Board anymore – you’re facing federal registration consequences that affect your ability to practice medicine nationwide. This is what happened to Dr. Conrad Murray after the Michael Jackson case, and to many, many Beverly Hills plastic surgeons who the DEA targeted for prescribing patterns.

The Medical Board investigator will contact you in the next few days. They’ll say they just want to “understand what happened” or “clarify a few things.” What you need to understand – and this is critical: that investigator is a former law enforcement officer, not a medical professional. Their job performance is measured by how many licenses they help suspend. Every word you say to them gets used against you in the administrative hearing.

Your Choices – Cooperation vs. Fighting

Understanding the difference between your options is critical – because the Medical Board investigator offering a “voluntary surrender” won’t explain this honestly. If you sign a voluntary surrender of your medical license, you lose everything immediately – your license is gone with no hearing, no appeal process, and no chance to present evidence. That surrender creates a permanent report on the National Practitioner Data Bank, which means every hospital in the country sees it when you apply for credentials, every state medical board sees it when you try to get licensed elsewhere, and every malpractice insurance company sees it. The Medical Board tells physicians that surrenders are “temporary” and you can “reapply next year” – but reapplication requires proving rehabilitation for conduct you were never convicted of, takes 3-5 years minimum if you’re lucky, and gets denied 90% of the time because you already admitted guilt by surrendering. The surrender isn’t a pause button on your career – it’s the end of your medical career in the United States, and the Medical Board knows this when they pressure you to sign.

Now let’s talk about what happens if you fight instead. When you demand an administrative hearing under California law, the case goes before an Administrative Law Judge – but the ALJ works for the same state agency that accused you, the standard of proof is “preponderance of the evidence” instead of “beyond a reasonable doubt” like criminal court, and there’s no jury of your peers deciding if you violated medical standards. Your medical license is a property right under the Fourteenth Amendment – and California’s emergency suspension process allows the Medical Board to take that property without the pre-deprivation hearing the Constitution requires. The administrative hearing process can take 6-18 months from accusation to final decision, and during that time your income is stopped if they imposed an emergency suspension – but if you win, you get your license back, your hospital privileges restored, and your DEA registration cleared.

What that means is this: cooperation with the Medical Board doesn’t buy you leniency – it buys them a conviction without having to prove their case. According to Medical Board of California enforcement statistics, over 90% of physicians who go through the administrative hearing process with legal representation either get charges reduced or dismissed entirely, because the Medical Board’s evidence often can’t survive cross-examination by medical experts who understand treatment standards.

Why Los Angeles Medical Board Cases Are Different

Los Angeles isn’t just any Medical Board jurisdiction – it’s the epicenter of coordinated federal-state enforcement against physicians. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California works directly with the Medical Board to identify prescribing cases that can be prosecuted federally, and Los Angeles County is designated a High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area by the DEA, which means prescribing enforcement is aggressive and well-funded. When the Medical Board files an accusation against a Los Angeles physician for opioid prescribing or controlled substance violations, federal prosecutors are often already building a parallel criminal case – which means you’re potentially facing federal criminal charges with mandatory minimum sentences if convicted.

The Medical Board’s District 8 investigators who handle Los Angeles cases are former LAPD, former DEA agents, and former federal law enforcement – they approach medical licensing cases like criminal investigations, not professional standards reviews. They obtain patient records without subpoenas, interview your staff without your knowledge, and contact pharmacies to build prescribing pattern analyses that ignore medical context entirely.

We’ve seen this pattern many, many times in Los Angeles: Beverly Hills plastic surgeons accused of overprescribing post-operative pain medication, downtown pain management s targeted because their patient population includes chronic pain sufferers who need controlled substances, and Westside family practitioners investigated because one patient complained. These cases get filed by the Medical Board, your privileges get suspended at Cedars-Sinai or UCLA, and suddenly you’re fighting for your career based on accusations that a jury of medical peers would never convict you for – but the Medical Board doesn’t use juries, they use ALJs who work for the same agency trying to take your license.

What You Should Do Right Now

DO NOT talk to the Medical Board investigator without an attorney present. You have Fifth Amendment rights even in administrative proceedings – anything you say gets used against you. DO NOT sign a voluntary surrender no matter how “temporary” they claim it is – once you sign, your license is gone and getting it back is nearly impossible. DO NOT wait to hire legal representation – you have 15 days to respond to the accusation, and every day you delay gives the Medical Board more time to build their case while your hospital privileges stay suspended and your income stays at zero.

At Spodek Law Group, we’ve defended physicians facing Medical Board accusations in California and across the country – including cases involving the Medical Board of California, DEA registration defense, and federal criminal charges for healthcare providers. Our managing partner Todd Spodek has handled high-profile cases covered by major media outlets like the New York Post, Newsweek, and Fox 5. We understand what it means when your entire medical career is at risk based on accusations that ignore the clinical realities of practicing medicine. Call us at 212-300-5196.