Brooks Law Firm
If the state issued you something — a professional license, a CDL, a police certification — you answer to a board or a commission as well as a court, on its rules and its clock. Three tracks, one page. Read the one that is yours. The pattern is the same in all three: the category of the outcome matters more than the sentence.
Professional licenses
Do I have to report a charge to my board right now?
It depends on the board, and the answer is in its rules. Many Tennessee boards ask about convictions at renewal and require nothing about a pending charge. Some require a report of an arrest or charge within days. Read your board’s current rule this week; if you cannot find it in ten minutes, ask us.
What is the board looking at?
Conduct, more than the charge. A board can discipline for the underlying behavior after a dismissal, and can decline to act on an unrelated conviction. Tennessee’s Fresh Start Act requires most boards to tie any action to the license and to explain in writing how a record relates to the work. That protection works best when the criminal case ends strong.
Healthcare, real estate, and finance — what is specific?
Nursing and EMS: the boards act on convictions and on conduct, renewal asks about convictions in the past ten years, and hospital policy is the shorter clock. Multistate nurses: Tennessee is a compact state, discipline follows the multistate privilege, and adverse actions and open investigations are reported to Nursys. Real estate: the Commission has its own criminal-history process and expects to be told. Finance: FINRA’s Form U4 requires disclosure of felony charges and certain misdemeanors, and non-disclosure is punished more harshly than the event itself.
CDL
What are the deadlines?
Under 49 C.F.R. § 383.31, written notice to your employer within 30 days of a conviction for any traffic offense other than parking, in any vehicle. Under § 383.33, notice before the end of the next business day if your license is suspended, revoked, or canceled, or you are disqualified. Your carrier’s policy may be shorter. The federal rules are the floor.
Does my personal car count?
Yes. Disqualification follows convictions in any vehicle; a first DUI conviction in your own car disqualifies the CDL for a year, and a refusal counts the same. Tennessee’s implied-consent revocation — now 18 months for a first refusal — is administrative and can begin before the criminal case ends. If it does, the next-business-day clock has started; read what happens after a refusal.
Should I take the deal that keeps it off my record?
Not until a CDL-aware lawyer has read it. Federal law prohibits masking a CDL holder’s traffic convictions through diversion or deferred judgment, so a plea that protects everyone else can produce a reported conviction for you. The defense usually has to be on the merits, or to a non-traffic offense. Our CDL defense page explains the rule. Two things that are not problems: the Clearinghouse records testing violations, not charges, and your medical card is unaffected by a charge.
Police certification
What does POST care about?
Categories, not severity. Tennessee POST bars certification for a conviction or plea — guilty or no contest — to any law relating to force, violence, theft, dishonesty, gambling, liquor, or controlled substances. A DUI is liquor; shoplifting is theft; domestic assault is force. A lesser plea inside the same category does not solve it. Waivers exist case by case, and expunged misdemeanors may be treated differently, which is why the criminal case has to be built around the rule rather than the sentence.
What do I do in the first 48 hours?
Report under your general orders: on time, in writing, without narrative. Do not sit for an internal affairs interview before talking to a lawyer, and ask about Garrity before answering anything under compulsion. A sustained dishonesty finding — including about your own case — can put you on a disclosure list that ends a career regardless of certification. If the charge is domestic, the firearm condition on the bond is the career: handle it in the first days. And do not resign; a resignation under investigation is reportable and follows you to the next department.
This week
- Find the exact rule — your board, § 383, or POST. Note whether it says arrest, charge, or conviction, and the deadline.
- Read the employer policy separately. It is a different clock.
- No letter to a board, no IA interview, no plea — until a lawyer who knows your license has read it.
- Say which license you hold in the first sentence of the first call.
Where this connects
- Criminal charges and your career — diversion, expungement, and disclosure lists in detail
- CDL defense | CDL ticket — what happens if you just pay it | DUI defense
- Domestic assault defense | Orders of protection
- Charged and your job | First-time offender in Memphis
Talk to a Memphis criminal defense lawyer
Licensed people get a different plan from the first call. Call the office at (901) 324-5000, or call or text the criminal line at 901-412-2973, for a free, confidential consultation.