If you're answering

A complaint was filed against your license

A letter from your board is a frightening thing to open, because it is your livelihood in the envelope. Here is what usually happens next, and what to start putting together today.

Free to build. $59 once, for this case, if you want to download the finished file.

Last updated Oct 10, 2026

What the letter is, and what it is not

Somebody has made a complaint. The board is telling you about it and, in most cases, asking for your written response.

It is not a finding. Boards receive complaints that go nowhere all the time — from patients, clients, customers, competitors and former employees. Receiving one says nothing about the outcome of it.

What it does mean is that there is now a file about you, and that the most useful thing in that file will be whatever you send.

What the board is actually asking you for

This is where most people go wrong, and it is worth being plain about.

They are not asking how you feel about the complaint. They are asking what happened, when, and what supports it. A board reviews a great many of these. What makes yours easy to assess is dates, records and a straight account. What makes it hard is three pages of indignation.

The response that works is usually short, factual and attached to things: the chart note, the contract, the message, the schedule, the photo, the invoice — each one dated, each one referenced from a line in your account.

That is a documentation job before it is anything else.

The date on the letter

The letter will give you a date to respond by. Write it down before anything else.

We are not going to tell you how long you have, because it differs by state and by board, and we would get it wrong for somebody. The date on your letter is the one that counts.

If you need longer, ask in writing before the date passes, and keep a copy of the asking. Boards are used to that request. What they are not used to is silence, and silence is read as not taking it seriously.

Start today, while you still remember

One thing to do today, and it is not the response.

Write down your own account of what happened, in order, with dates. Who, when, where, what was said, what was done, what was recorded at the time. Do it now, while it is fresh, and before you have read the complaint forty times and started remembering it their way.

Then, separately, break their complaint into its separate claims. Most complaints bundle several things together. Some will be accurate, some will be half right, and some will be wrong. Answering a paragraph is impossible. Answering a numbered list is straightforward.

Pull your records before they move

Whatever your work generates, go and get it now.

• The file, chart, job sheet, contract or booking for the matter complained of.
• Your schedule or roster for the dates in question.
• Messages and emails with the person who complained, in full, not just the ones that help.
• Any record of a supervisor, colleague or second person being present.
• Your own notes made at the time, however rough.
• Anything recording training, policy or the standard procedure you followed.

If you work for somebody else, get what you are entitled to have now rather than later. Access to a workplace system can disappear quickly when a complaint is in the air, and it is not always deliberate.

What to leave alone

• Don't contact the complainant. Not to explain, not to apologize, not to ask what this is about. It will be reported, and it will look worse than the complaint.
• Don't alter a record. Not to clarify, not to tidy, not to add the note you meant to write at the time. A late addition properly dated and marked as late is fine. An edit that pretends to be contemporaneous is the thing that ends careers, not the original complaint.
• Don't send the first draft. Write it, leave it overnight, read it again.
• Don't discuss it with colleagues beyond whoever you need to.
• Don't assume it will go away because it is nonsense. Unanswered is worse than answered.

Should you get a lawyer?

Many people in your position do, and for anything that could end your license it is worth at least a conversation. This page is not going to tell you whether you need one.

What we will say is that the first half hour with one costs the same whether you arrive with a shoebox or with a dated chronology and a numbered set of exhibits. One of those gets you advice. The other gets you a bill for the sorting.

What your side looks like when it is in order

BuildMyEvidence is a place to put it. You write down what happened and attach what you already have. Everything gets a date and a number.

For a complaint like this, that gives you:

• Their complaint, broken into separate points, each in their words, with whatever bears on it underneath.
• One chronology, in order, with no argument in it.
• Your own statement, in your words, numbered as paragraphs, with a page at the end to sign by hand.
• Your documents, listed and dated, each one referenced from the account.

You can read every page in full before you pay. The screen copy carries preview marks across it. The file you download is clean, and it is $59 once, for this case. What the $59 covers

It is a record, not a lawyer. It does not tell you whether you will win, and it does not write your position for you. It makes sure that whatever you send, and whoever helps you send it, is built on something dated.

Read one that is already written

Two of our four worked examples are written from this side — somebody answering something they did not start. You can open them and read every page, free.

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Questions people ask

Will this go on my record even if the complaint is dismissed?

That depends on your board and your state, and we are not going to guess at it. Your board's own site is the place that answers it, and it is a fair question to ask them directly.

The complaint is from a disgruntled former client.

It may well be. Say what happened, with dates, and let the record make that point for you. Saying it about them directly rarely helps and often reads badly.

I don't have good notes from the time.

Then say so, and write what you do remember with today's date on it. There is a guide on exactly this: Putting six months in order when you didn't keep notes

Is what I write here private?

Yes. It is your account, in your account, and nothing leaves it unless you send it. Privacy

People arrive here from nursing, real estate, the trades, childcare, cosmetology and personal training. The method is the same.

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