Emergency Medical Assistants: Your Questions About EMALB Discipline Answered

If you are an Emergency Medical Assistant (EMA) facing a complaint filed with the Emergency Medical Assistants Licensing Board (“EMALB” or the “Board”), you need to act swiftly to protect your career and reputation. The first step is to acquire a baseline understanding of the potential risks, the disciplinary procedures, as well as your legal rights and obligations when navigating a disciplinary action. Similarly, if you have received an unfair EMALB licensing decision, you are probably wondering what you can do to get legal remedies.

This article serves to provide some essential information about what to expect and do when you are put into these challenging situations. It is not a substitute for legal advice, however, as every case is unique. If you have any concerns or questions regarding a discipline or licensing decision of EMALB, you can contact Taylor Janis Workplace Law for tailored legal advice.

The Authorities of EMALB

Under the Emergency Health Services Act (the “Act“), the Emergency Medical Assistants Licensing Board is a government body responsible for examining, registering and licensing all emergency medical assistants in BC. It also has the power and authority to set terms and conditions for EMA licenses and investigate complaints. Subject to ministerial approval, it has broad powers in making policies governing its own procedures.

Hence, its licensing and disciplinary decisions have legally binding effects on EMAs in BC.

What Attracts Discipline

Under the Act, the following may attract a penalty by EMALB:

• Displaying incompetence when performing an EMA’s duties;
• Material impairments to an EMA’s ability to perform their duties; and
• Breaching a term or condition of the EMA license.
  • This also means a contravention of the Act, its accompanying regulations or the Code of Ethics is disciplinable. This is because compliance with these rules is a mandatory condition for all types of EMA licenses under the Emergency Medical Assistants Regulation.

Notably, a former EMA can also be subjected to EMALB discipline.

What Are the Consequences

If EMALB determines that an EMA should be disciplined, it can hand out one or more of the following penalties:

• Imposition of conditions on the EMA’s licence;
• Temporary suspension of the EMA’s license;
• Revocation of the EMA’s license; and
• Temporary prohibition on reapplying for an EMA License.

A severe penalty can be career-threatening, and even a seemingly minor penalty can be highly onerous and disruptive to your job: for example, EMALB may suspend your license and require you to complete a specific course of study within a limited time, and non-compliance can result in further suspension, as seen in this hearing decision dated Nov.20, 2024.

Moreover, a penalty can result in severe and long-term reputational damage and may affect your ability to register with other professional regulators in the future. Under the EMALB’s Rules for Complaints, Investigations and Discipline Hearings (the “rules”), summaries of disciplinary orders must be published on its website for public notice.

Independent Legal Advice and Representation

A large number of licensed EMAs in BC are employed by the BC Emergency Health Services and are members of a union. Even if you are unionized, obtaining independent legal advice or representation can be valuable when you have concerns about an EMALB disciplinary process or licensing decision.

While a union is your exclusive bargaining agent with your employer, independent legal advice or representation is beneficial in the following circumstances:

• When a legal matter concerns EMALB but not your employer:
  • Such matters are not captured by your collective agreement, and your union will not necessarily provide you with sufficient legal support to handle an EMALB regulatory action or licensing decision.
• When an EMALB complaint results in your employer inappropriately disciplining or dismissing you.
  • In these circumstances, your union has a duty to fairly represent you, but it also has some discretion not to start a grievance procedure, especially if it does not fully understand your perspectives. In these circumstances, you should obtain independent legal counsel to highlight the factual and legal background of your grievance, as support through your legal counsel can effectively persuade your union to put more resources and attention into resolving the matter.

Taylor Janis appreciates that your union and union counsel often play critical roles in representing you through workplace legal challenges, but at times, the value of independent legal advice should not be overlooked. It is important to bear in mind that your union counsel’s duty is to represent the union in matters related to the collective agreement, whereas your own lawyer has a duty to give undivided loyalty to you.

Contact Taylor Janis Workplace Law at our BC offices in Vancouver or Kamloops if you are unsure about whether your union will represent you in a particular legal matter.

The Disciplinary Process of EMALB

When undergoing a disciplinary process of EMALB, you need to respond promptly and in a legally informed way, as every procedure involved can be highly disruptive and consequential, and a robust response early on can lead to an expedited resolution.

Triggering a Disciplinary Process

A disciplinary process can be triggered by a complaint or on EMALB’s own motion.

EMALB must initiate an investigation following the receipt of a complaint, unless it is summarily dismissed for being trivial, frivolous, vexatious or made in bad faith; not falling within the Board’s jurisdiction; or lacking the seriousness to warrant further investigation.

EMALB may suspend or impose limits or conditions on an EMA’s license if there is a strong prima facie (obvious and highly believable) risk of harm to the public. This is known as an extraordinary action under the Act.

Investigations

Being investigated can be a stressful experience, where you have a need to stay vigilant of legal pitfalls and not inadvertently prejudice yourself. When under investigation, the investigated EMA will be notified of the allegations against them, and they may be requested to:

• Produce records and other documents for examination and copying;
• Attend an interview, answer questions and provide information;

During an investigation, EMALB may also question the investigated EMA’s co-workers, interview the complainant or request third-party written reports that may assist in reviewing the matter.

After an investigation, if a complaint is not dismissed or resolved voluntarily, a citation will be published on EMALB’s website, and a discipline hearing will be scheduled. Thus, an investigation may emit secondary reputational harm.

Discipline Hearings

A discipline hearing can be intensely stressful and complex for a respondent EMA to navigate alone. This is for a few reasons:

• The hearing is quasi-judicial and adversarial:
  • A “discipline counsel” will be appointed to prosecute the citation. You should consider legal representation to level the playing field.
  • A decision will be based on the relative strength of the parties’ factual and legal positions; hence, a hearing requires extensive preparation and strategic planning.
• You may be ordered to testify under oath:
  • If you testify, you may be subject to examination and be intensely scrutinized with questions.
  • Failure to cooperate may result in severe legal consequences. Under the applicable sections of the Administrative Tribunals Act, the Board has the power to compel a witness during a hearing and enforce compliance by obtaining court orders.
• The preparation has to be done under intense time limits:
  • Under the rules, a hearing citation can be served to you as late as 30 days before the hearing, and there are complex pre-hearing procedures (such as disclosure of evidence) to navigate under strict deadlines.
• A hearing has profound reputational effects:
  • Hearings are presumptively open to the public, and hearing citations are published. Therefore, severe reputational harm may occur even before a decision is made, and you should take extra care not to prejudice yourself during a hearing.

Hearings may be conducted in two parts. If a first hearing determines liability, the second hearing will result in legally enforceable penalties.

Mediations and Alternative Dispute Resolutions

There are alternative ways to resolve a complaint without going through a hearing, which can be advantageous in the right circumstances. However, you should not make a hasty decision without legal advice.

• After the completion of an investigation, subject to the mutual agreement of the investigated EMT and the complainant, EMALB may attempt to resolve a complaint through mediation if other regulatory actions are not necessary in the public interest.
• EMALB may also negotiate a consent agreement with the investigated EMA, which will require an EMA to consent to a reprimand, or to undertake (solemnly promise) to take or refrain from certain actions.

However, you should approach these carefully and strategically, ideally with legal advice, because:

• An undertaking or a mediation agreement is normally legally enforceable. Breaching an agreement or undertaking may lead to further liabilities. Hence, you should only agree to what is reasonable considering all the legal and factual constraints.
• A consent agreement is a form of admission to the alleged facts, which will substantially foreclose the possibility of appealing a decision for improper fact-finding.
• A consent agreement has profound reputational implications. If it results in a reprimand or affects an EMA’s license, a consent agreement must be published under the Rules.

The Value of Early Legal Representation

Throughout an entire disciplinary process, you have a need to avoid legal pitfalls. Each procedure involved can be highly stressful, complex, consequential and disruptive to your job.

Proactively obtaining independent legal advice helps you stay legally informed when making decisions and navigating the procedural complexities. Moreover, a robust early response may lead to an expedited resolution, thus minimizing the disruptive effects.

You should not risk it alone through the complexity of EMALB regulatory actions. Contact Taylor Janis Workplace Law today if you have any concerns about an ongoing or impending disciplinary procedure.

Your Rights when Being Subjected to an EMALB decision

Under the Act, EMALB has broad discretion in governing its own procedures and making disciplinary and licensing decisions, but it cannot exercise its discretion arbitrarily without any constraints. One of the restraints is your administrative law rights when being subjected to its administrative powers. Your rights have roots in common law and even the Constitution, and safeguarding your rights can be integral to achieving a fair outcome.

Administrative law rights can be a complex legal topic, but to summarize it, you have three distinct rights to:

• Unbiased decision makers:
  • A decision maker should not give a “reasonable apprehension of bias” to a reasonably informed third party observing the entire decision-making process.
• Procedural fairness:
  • This is about due process, and whether due process is conducted fairly to give you the opportunity to know the case against you and make a full answer or defence.
  • Your exact procedural entitlements can be found in the Act, its accompanying regulations and the Rules. However, even appropriately chosen procedures can be conducted unfairly; hence, to protect this right requires a high degree of vigilance when being subject to EMALB’s procedures.
• Substantive fairness:
  • This means the decisions of EMALB must meet certain standards in its factual and legal reasoning.
  • An unfair EMALB disciplinary decision can be appealed to the BC Supreme Court within 30days of its making, where the appellate standard is that a disciplinary decision must be “correct” in legal reasoning and not have “palpable and overriding error” in fact-finding, as if it is a decision made by a lower court (Vavilov & Housen)
  • An unfair licensing decision may be judicially reviewed, where the review standard is likely to be “reasonableness”. This is actually a complex legal concept that basically means the reasoning must be internally coherent and take into account all relevant factual and legal constraints, but not consider any irrelevant factors.

Safeguarding Your Rights with Early and Ongoing Legal Representation

It is monumentally challenging to overturn a decision once it has been made, and an appeal or judicial review should be seen as a last resort attempt to seek judicial remedies by a grieved EMA. This is because the legal standards to overturn a decision are very high (as discussed above), and courts are required to follow the common law tradition to pay deference to administrative decision makers out of respect for legislative intent following Vavilov. Moreover, even if an appeal or judicial review turned out in your favour, the matter might be sent back to EMALD to be re-determined rather than quashed outright, causing further complexities and stress.

When undergoing an EMALB disciplinary process, your rights are embedded and affected by each procedure. Hence, the ideal way to safeguard your rights to fairness is to have your legal counsel engaged with the entire process, so that they can spot and flag fairness concerns as they begin to emerge.

Whether you have concerns about your rights during an upcoming disciplinary procedure or you are seeking judicial remedies for an unfair licensing or disciplinary decision, you can trust Taylor Janis to provide skilled legal assistance. Contact us today to discuss your situation with one of our experienced lawyers.

Defending Your Career With the Right Legal Support

Being subject to an EMALB disciplinary process can have severe reputational and career consequences, and an unfair licensing decision can significantly undermine your professional growth. How you respond to these challenging situations is critical to shaping the outcome and safeguarding your career.

Our strong recommendation is that you obtain independent legal advice and representation early. By taking this proactive approach, you are better supported to navigate the complex process and safeguard your legal rights.

Moreover, your counsel has a duty of undivided loyalty to you and can leverage their legal knowledge to formulate robust and strategic arguments, which require extensive legal knowledge and research, skilled organization and presentation of evidence, as well as tenacious and resourceful advocacy.

Taylor Janis Workplace Law has a proven track record in helping professionals navigate the challenges of regulatory actions. Our lawyers understand the intricacies of EMALB’s processes and are committed to providing strategic advice and representation tailored to your specific situation and needs.

A consultation is the first step to securing a tailored legal plan. Whether you have concerns about a licensing decision or are facing an EMALB disciplinary process, contact one of our BC offices in Vancouver or Kamloops today to discuss your situation.

Taylor Janis offers tailored legal services to all professionals in regulatory actions in all areas of BC, and we look forward to assisting you through any EMALB regulatory challenges.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Long Does a Typical EMALB Disciplinary Process Take?

Every case is different, so the time it takes to resolve a matter would vary greatly. A vexatious or frivolous complaint will likely be dismissed fairly quickly, but if a matter escalates into an investigation or hearing, the entire process can take a few months or even more than a year. How you respond in a given situation is also important: a robust response early on can lead to an early resolution. If you have concerns about the disruptive effects of a disciplinary process, you should consult a lawyer for their help in streamlining the process where possible and reasonable.

Can My Legal Counsel Represent Me throughout an Entire Disciplinary Process, or are They Only Helpful for a Hearing?

The Rules specify that an EMA under investigation or subjected to a hearing can be represented by legal counsel. Our recommendation is not to leave legal representation until the last minute before a hearing. This is because having legal representation can be highly advantageous in all disciplinary procedures. Not only will your lawyer help you stay informed about your rights and potential legal pitfalls, but they can also prepare robust and legally-informed responses, which can lead to an expedited resolution. Having legal counsel also shows that you are taking the matter seriously, which may discourage or dispel frivolous or vexatious allegations.

Can EMALB Suspend My License During an Investigation?

You should not overlook this risk. During an investigation, EMALB may suspend or impose limits or conditions on an EMA’s license if there is a strong prima facie risk of harm to the public. This is known as an extraordinary action under the Act. If this has happened to you, you need to strictly follow EMALD’s direction so you do not attract further liabilities. You can appeal to the BC Supreme Court to have an extraordinary action lifted, but legal representation is strongly recommended. You should contact Taylor Janis Workplace Law for legal advice today.

How Do the Procedures Differ between Appealing a Disciplinary Decision and a Licensing Decision?

Under the Act, a disciplinary decision by EMALB can be appealed to the BC Supreme Court within 30 days after it is made. To start this process, you need to file and serve a notice of appeal. Licensing decisions, however, cannot be appealed. The legal venue for you to seek a judicial remedy is to “petition” for a judicial review. The procedures have certain differences, and the standards to overturn a decision differ, especially in relation to the substantive fairness of a decision. In both an appeal and judicial review, the court has discretion to decide whether or not to hear a matter, and the legal thresholds are high. Hence, if you are in need of judicial remedies, the benefit of having legal representation is eminently clear.

Conclusion

EMALB has broad licensing and disciplinary powers and discretion, and its decisions have legally binding effects on EMAs in BC. If you are an Emergency Medical Assistant facing an impending or ongoing EMALB disciplinary process, acting swiftly is imperative to protect your license, career and reputation. Similarly, prompt actions are imperative if you have received an unfair licensing decision. In these circumstances, you should seek independent legal advice. An experienced counsel can assist you through the procedural complexity, safeguard your rights, help you make informed strategic decisions, as well as formulate robust and strategic responses and arguments to assist you in regulatory challenges. Hence, you should obtain independent legal counsel early and have them engaged with the entire process.

References:

• Emergency Health Services Act [RSBC 1996] CHAPTER 182
• Administrative Tribunals Act [SBC 2004] CHAPTER 45
• Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65 (CanLII), [2019] 4 SCR 653
• Housen v. Nikolaisen, 2002 SCC 33 (CanLII), [2002] 2 SCR 235
• Emergency Medical Assistants Regulation, B.C. Reg. 210/2010
• EMALB Rules for Complaints, Investigations and Discipline Hearings

Resources for Readers:

• Hearing citations and summaries of EMALB disciplinary decisions
• Complaint process of EMALB

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