During the 80th Legislature, Regular Session, 2007, three bills involving criminal convictions and occupational licenses were introduced and none of them passed. The first would have limited a licensing authority’s ability to suspend or revoke a license based only on criminal convictions that have occurred in the past 5 years. The second bill proposed provisional licenses and the third bill suggested standards for considering deferred adjudications as convictions. Will similar bills be filed again in the upcoming legislative session? I’ll keep you posted…
Also, AG Opinion GA-0614 issued on April 7, 2008, provided clarification regarding a state agency’s authority to consider additional criminal offenses related to a profession pursuant to Texas. Occ. Code Sec. 53.025. An agency’s authority to take action against a person for an offense listed in the statute is discretionary.