A complaint to a professional regulator is neither a lawsuit nor a formality, and it calls for a response suited to a process that has its own rules and its own standard. In Alberta’s regulated professions, most outcomes are decided at the stage of the first written response, which is usually sent before the professional has taken advice.
Who is regulated and by what
Alberta’s health professions, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, psychologists and many others, are regulated under the Health Professions Act through their colleges. Other professions, including lawyers, engineers, accountants, teachers and real estate professionals, are regulated under their own statutes. The structure is similar across most of them: a complaints process, an investigation, a decision on whether to refer the matter to a hearing, a tribunal that decides whether the conduct amounts to unprofessional conduct, and an appeal route that in many professions ends at the Court of Appeal.
How a complaint moves
A complaint is received by the complaints director or registrar, who has a range of options: dismiss it as trivial or unfounded, resolve it through an alternative process with the professional’s agreement, order an investigation, or refer it directly to a hearing. The professional has a duty to cooperate with the investigation and to respond, and a failure to do so is itself unprofessional conduct in most regimes. Where the matter goes to a hearing, the tribunal hears evidence, applies the profession’s standards and, if conduct is found, decides the sanction.
Sanctions range from a reprimand and conditions on practice through fines, courses and supervision to suspension and cancellation of registration, and they are usually accompanied by an order to pay some or all of the costs of the investigation and hearing. Most regulators publish their decisions with the professional’s name.
Why the first response decides so much
The written response to the initial complaint is read by the person deciding whether the matter goes any further, and it is also evidence at any hearing that follows. Where the response is defensive, incomplete or argumentative, the matter tends to move toward investigation, whereas a response that engages with the complaint, explains the clinical or professional reasoning, acknowledges any error and shows what has changed since will often bring it to an end. The preparation of that response deserves more care than any other step in the process, and yet it is the step professionals most often take without advice.
Interim suspensions and employers
Where a regulator considers there is a risk to the public,it can restrict or suspend a professional’s practice on an interim basis before any finding has been made. Those decisions can be challenged and reviewed, and a prompt challenge matters, since an interim suspension has the practical effects of a final one. Employers frequently learn of a complaint before the professional’s own regulator has made a decision, and managing that relationship, including what the professional is obliged to disclose and what they are not, is part of the advice.
Where the firm can act
Advice on a complaint, preparation of the response, and representation through the investigation and at the hearing are available to professionals anywhere in Alberta. The practice is virtual, so meetings happen by video, telephone and email, with in-person meetings available on request in Cochrane or in Calgary.
If you have received a complaint, a notice of investigation or an interim practice restriction, call (587) 328-3328.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not without advice. The written response is read by the person deciding whether the matter goes further and becomes evidence at any hearing.
Yes. Most Alberta regulatory statutes make a failure to cooperate or respond unprofessional conduct in its own right, so the question is how to respond rather than whether.
Yes, on an interim basis, where the regulator considers there is a risk to the public. Those decisions can be reviewed and should be challenged promptly, since the practical effect is the same as a final suspension.
Usually. Most Alberta regulators publish disciplinary decisions with the professional’s name, which is one of the reasons the early stages matter.
