Board Enforcement, Disciplinary Actions, and Professional Conduct
Maryland discipline begins with a complaint and ends with an order that is public. The Board investigates, issues charges, and decides contested cases through the Administrative Procedure Act framework, often with an administrative law judge presiding. Understanding the pipeline and the available sanctions is what exam items test.
Grounds for discipline
- Fraud or deceit in obtaining a license, and misrepresentation in the practice.
- Gross negligence, incompetence, or unprofessional conduct in embalming, arranging, or directing.
- Aiding unlicensed practice, including allowing an unregistered person to embalm or remove remains.
- Failure to file death certificates, to obtain permits, or to comply with preneed trust duties.
- Conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude or controlled substances, and practicing while impaired.
Sanctions available
Reprimand, probation with conditions, suspension, revocation, civil penalties, restitution, additional continuing education, and cease-and-desist orders against unlicensed operators. Summary suspension is available where continued practice endangers the public.
Worked example
A licensee diverts preneed trust money to cover payroll. The Board may revoke or suspend, order restitution, impose a civil penalty, and refer the matter for criminal prosecution. The reasoning: trust money is fiduciary property, so the violation is both a practice violation and potentially theft.
Traps that cost marks
Assuming a complaint must come from a consumer, forgetting that discipline in another state must be reported and can be independently sanctioned in Maryland, and believing reinstatement after revocation is automatic.