We have an online communication group (listserv) which is for members only. You can be in contact with your colleagues 24/7. Communicate with the whole group or only those you choose.

The members of HARBR have joined their massive libraries. We have a lot of resources and we have organized them. Before we organized, most of us did our own research and in hindsight, found that our information, materials and knowledge bases had categorizable utility. When you join with us, you’ll not need to start from scratch. We know statutes, administrative rules, codes of ethics for attorneys, case law, the Constitution, the Attorney General’s Model Rules, textbook lawyer’s tricks, how bills become law, and so on. You can be directed to websites, and sent material by email. HARBR’s resource acquisition is ongoing.

Our archives are growing every day. We have a private library which consists of our collected written material (full text), reference lists, link sets, a history of our organization, cases, case histories, case precedents, legislative work, preserved communications, and other resources. Some of our material is specifically designed for the public, some is designed for special use, and some is considered “classified.” Not all material is available to the public. We protect sensitive information.

 

 

Although HARBR has organized to make things easier, disciplinary procedures can be quite complex. HARBR members help each other strategize when something new has arisen, when there is a change in the trajectory of a disciplinary matter, or when a licensee wishes to re-explore their options. Our members are educated, experienced, intelligent, and realistic. We do well when we work in concert.

Never without your express consent, we can broadcast your side of the story. Although it is different with different boards, most make their claims against you available to the public. It may be on their website. It may be in the press. The boards’ incriminating (and often libelous) side of the story is often searchable on the internet (googleable). If boards choose, they can even optimize their story on search engines (SEO). The boards are not interested in playing fair. They do not broadcast your side of the story anywhere. This, you must do yourself. If you do not, the boards will make a monster of you before everyone that matters. Secondary websites such as “Quack Watch,” and “Psych Crime” may reprint and circulate the boards’ side of the story. Friends, family, and colleagues may come to believe the boards’ allegations. Employers, future employers, professional organizations can also be influenced. We can publish and SEO your side of the story on this website, help you set up your own website, and discuss strategies by which you may meet with the press.

If you are going through a board disciplinary process, the financial impact can be monumental. It can take a toll on you in the the short run, the mid-run, and/or the long run depending on how you play it. HARBR can help you make a plan to anticipate and minimize your cost.

It started with medical boards, but increasingly other healthcare regulatory boards are adding mandatory assessments and treatment to their means of assaulting licensees. Often presented as an “alternative to discipline,” damage to the licensee is rarely if ever averted by the licensees’ “compliance.”

Although this is part of HARBR members’ role as activists, conflicts of interests confound the fairness of disciplinary processes at every turn. It needs to be addressed as it arises.

Some of the terms you will need to know are: administrative law, separation of powers, ex parte communication, trade restriction motivation, and regulatory capture.

HARBR can help you find the witnesses you need to win your case. From within and without HARBR, we can help you get expert witnesses, fact witnesses, and character witnesses. Contrary to what might first come to mind, many of these witnesses can testify to the nature of the board, the nature of the board’s attorney and investigators, the behavior of the board staff, the nature of “corrective” programs, and so forth. You will need witnesses and they will need to present powerfully. Witness procurement, as with all things in HARBR is done lawfully. To do otherwise would undermine a case.

HARBR has come to believe that many (or most) judges who hear cases in the Court of Appeals, are not fully aware of the dynamics of healthcare regulatory board disciplinary processes. As wise, experienced, and just as judges may be, we do not believe they are fully aware of what is at stake for the licensees or what licensees have faced before getting to the appellate stage. HARBR is working on an outreach campaign to judges so that good judges may deliver better opinions and verdicts. Much of this will be done by publishing articles on this site which are specifically aimed at educating judges about the disciplinary experience. We are also developing our ability to write timely “amicus briefs.” These are briefs sent to the court at the outset of appellate hearings. They are designed to provide helpful information by people who may have an interest in the case but are not directly involved in the case. When HARBR writes an “amicus” brief, HARBR would be writing as an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”).