DEA Suspensions and Revocations Attorneys and Lawyers
Federal Agencies and Your Rights
Federal agencies usually cannot just intimidate individuals and businesses into relinquishing their rights or licenses. These may only be stripped through formal proceedings. Our nation does not make some special exception for suspensions and revocations by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Challenges with DEA Actions
Still, overzealous DEA agents may seek to hastily retract your rights and privileges. They believe they must aggressively perform their duties, but that stance often makes them pursue healthcare providers too vigorously.
Without your DEA registration, your career will be irrevocably damaged. Fortunately, you don’t have to simply surrender it at the DEA’s demand. With the right legal team, suspension or revocation attempts can often be defeated.
Resisting Surrender
It is almost never wise to voluntarily surrender your DEA registration. Your refusal to surrender forces the DEA’s hand. Normally, they will decide to formally pursue suspension or revocation, so you need our former federal prosecutors on your side throughout the process.
Our Commitment to You
Our team will expertly negotiate a resolution that can keep you in good standing in your career. Expect us to dedicate ourselves toward helping you maintain your licenses and DEA registration.
Trusted Representation
Doctors, medical professionals, practices and other healthcare entities wisely look to our firm. We fight relentlessly for our clients, so put us in your corner when your career is under attack.
Reasons for Suspension or Revocation
Despite its substantial power, the DEA must provide specific reasons for removing your registration. Typical reasons include:
- Falsified registration information
- Official exclusion from Medicare or Medicaid
- Felony conviction involving a controlled substance
- Denial, revocation or suspension of a license in any state
- Engagement in behavior against the public interest
- Immediate danger to public health
- Voluntary surrender of your registration
Legal Process
The DEA cannot take your registration due to an allegation alone. They must follow a formal adjudication process. Excluding cases concerning the public’s imminent danger, you’ll be allowed to continue practicing throughout that process.
Responding to a DEA Show Cause Order
To indicate its intent to suspend or revoke your registration, the DEA must formally serve you with an Order to Show Cause. This legal document gives you the DEA’s summary of the facts and relevant law regarding your situation.
You are required to respond to this order, and your response can significantly impact your career’s future. Enhance your potential for an optimal result by hiring experts who have worked the other side of these cases.
Immediate Suspension Orders
Importantly, if an Order to Show Cause comes with an Immediate Suspension Order, you must comply.
DEA Show Cause Hearing
After you receive your Order to Show Cause, you will have 30 days to request a hearing. Your request must be effective, so leave it to professionals.
At your hearing, each side presents its case before an administrative law judge. This federal judge, the ALJ, presides over arguments, evidence and witnesses.
The DEA must demonstrate the need for suspension or revocation of your registration via a preponderance of the evidence. Importantly, this legal standard is lower than the one used in criminal court. The DEA must simply show that it’s likelier than not that a violation happened.
If the ALJ finds in your favor, the case ends. Otherwise, the ALJ may formally recommend your registration’s suspension or removal.
Administrator Review
Next, the recommendation will proceed to a DEA administrator. They will weigh it against objections or exceptions submitted by your defense team or the DEA.
These factors may impact the administrator’s decision:
- Your compliance with all applicable laws
- Any previous convictions involving controlled substances
- Your effectiveness at keeping controlled substances from being trafficked
- Your professional experience with controlled substances
- Anything regarding your actions’ impact on public health or safety
After full consideration, the DEA administrator will rule via a written decision that can modify, reject or accept the recommendation from the ALJ.
Seek Legal Counsel
If the DEA has served you with an order or pushed you to surrender your registration, contact us for a free, confidential consultation today.
We’ve got federal prosecutors on our team, and we defend clients nationwide.