9.3 Hearings, Notices, Summary Suspension & Automatic Termination

Hearings, Notices, Summary Suspension & Automatic Termination

Article 20 is not only a list of sins. It is a set of clocks. PSI will hand you a date and ask which clock applies. A 20-day under-oath answer is not a 30-day hearing notice, a 30-calendar-day summary-suspension hearing start is not a 20-day rehearing motion, and a 30-day tax-termination notice is not a 60-day civil-penalty payment. Write the statute number on the clock before you pick an option.

20-43: 30-day notice, 20-day answer under oath, default

225 ILCS 407/20-43 is the ordinary disciplinary-hearing statute. The Department may investigate an applicant, an unlicensed person, a person rendering or offering auction services, or a person holding or claiming to hold an auctioneer license. At least 30 days before any disciplinary hearing, the Department shall:

1. notify the person charged in writing of the charges and the time and place of the hearing;
2. direct the person to file with the Board a written answer under oath to the charges within 20 days of receiving service of the notice; and
3. inform the person that if no answer is filed within those 20 days, default may be entered and the license may be suspended, revoked, placed on probationary status, or otherwise disciplined, including limiting the scope, nature, or extent of practice, or imposing a fine.

The 30-day figure is the minimum lead time before the hearing. The 20-day figure is the answer deadline counted from service of the notice, not from the hearing date. An answer that is sworn (under oath) and filed with the Board is what 20-43 requires; silence is default, not a continuance.

At the hearing, the Board hears the charges. The person or counsel gets ample opportunity to present statements, testimony, evidence, and arguments. The Board may continue the hearing when it deems it appropriate.

Service. Notice of the hearing may be served by certified mail, or, at the Department's discretion, by electronic means to the person's last known address or email address of record. If the party has designated a specific email address for that proceeding, service may go to that address. This is why Chapter 5's 14-day address-of-record duty in 10-22 and Rule 1440.190 is not a clerical courtesy. Notice sent to the email of record is good service even if the licensee stopped reading it.

20-80: summary suspension — hearing in 30 calendar days

225 ILCS 407/20-80 is the emergency valve. The Secretary may temporarily suspend any license without a hearing, simultaneously with instituting hearing proceedings, if the Secretary finds that the evidence indicates that the public interest, safety, or welfare requires emergency action.

If the Secretary suspends without a hearing, a hearing shall be commenced within 30 calendar days after the suspension has begun. Calendar days, not business days. The suspended licensee may seek a continuance of that hearing, during which the suspension shall remain in effect. Asking for more time does not lift the emergency suspension. The proceeding shall be concluded without appreciable delay.

Typical emergency facts: converting escrow, practicing while a revocation is in process, a safety-impairment crisis under 20-15(24) or (27). Summary suspension is not the tool for a missing CE hour (that is 20-15.1) and not the tool for an IDOR tax delinquency (that is 20-20). Match the emergency finding to 20-80.

20-50 and 20-56: Board report, Secretary deviation, 20-day rehearing

225 ILCS 407/20-50. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Board presents to the Secretary a written report of findings of fact, conclusions of law, and recommendations, including whether the person violated the Act or rules, and the nature of any violation. In recommending discipline, the Board may consider prior Department discipline, intent, degree of harm and likelihood of future harm, restitution, and whether the incident is isolated or a continuing pattern, and shall endeavor to keep severity reasonably proportional.

The Board report is the basis for the Department's decision. If the Secretary disagrees with the Board's recommendations, the Secretary may issue an order in contravention. The Secretary shall provide a written report to the Advisory Board on any deviation and shall specify with particularity the reasons for that action in the final order. The Board does not get a silent override. The report's findings are not admissible against the person in a criminal prosecution under the Act, and the hearing is not a bar to criminal prosecution.

225 ILCS 407/20-56. A copy of the Board's report is served on the applicant, licensee, or unlicensed person. Within 20 days after service, the applicant or licensee may present a written motion for rehearing specifying particular grounds. If no motion is filed, or if it is denied, the Secretary may enter an order in accordance with the Board's recommendations. If the person orders and pays for a transcript within the rehearing window, the 20-day period starts on delivery of the transcript. Do not confuse this 20-day rehearing motion with the 20-day answer in 20-43.

30-day conviction and other-license notice: 10-5(c), 20-15(3)/(3.5)/(5), 1440.250

Two statutes and one rule all use 30 days. They are not the same filing.

• 10-5(c) (Chapter 4): during licensure, report listed convictions, guilty or nolo pleas, and administrative sanctions within 30 days after the occurrence.
• 20-15(3) makes the conviction, plea, or administrative sanction a discipline ground; 20-15(3.5) makes the failure to notify within 30 days its own ground; 20-15(5) includes failing to report another jurisdiction's adverse final action within 30 days.
• 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1440.250: a licensee shall notify the Division in writing within 30 days from the date of conviction for any crime described by 20-15(3), and shall provide the court record and documents (or other information the Division requires). Separately, a licensee disciplined as described in 20-15(5) shall notify the Division in writing within 30 days after any adverse final order, and shall provide the disciplinary record.

Write the notice. Attach the court or board file. Waiting for renewal is 20-15(3.5) or a 20-15(5) report failure on top of the underlying event.

20-20 and 1440.280: tax and child-support termination without a merits hearing

225 ILCS 407/20-20 lets the Department terminate or otherwise discipline any license without a hearing if the appropriate administering agency provides adequate information and proof that the licensee has:

1. failed to file a return, to pay the tax, penalty, or interest shown in a filed return, or to pay any final assessment of tax, penalty, or interest, as required by any tax act administered by the Illinois Department of Revenue, until those tax-act requirements are satisfied; or
2. failed to pay any court-ordered child support as determined by a court order or by referral from the Department of Healthcare and Family Services; or
3. (blank).

The student-loan prong that older outlines still whisper about is blank in 20-20(3). Do not treat student-loan default as a live statutory 20-20 ground. The rule title of 1440.280 still says "Taxes, Child Support or Student Loan," and the rule body still mentions a student loan "pursuant to Section 20-20." Teach the Act as controlling: (1) IDOR taxes, (2) court-ordered child support, (3) blank. If an item asks what 20-20 currently lists, (3) is blank.

If a license is terminated or disciplined under 20-20, the licensee may request a hearing within 30 days of notice.

Rule 1440.280 supplies the auto-termination mechanics. If the Division receives information that a licensee has failed to pay or is more than 30 days in arrearage on the 20-20 items, the Division shall notify the licensee that the license will be automatically terminated in 30 days from the date of the notice, unless the administering agency provides information and proof that the licensee has corrected the failure. A requested hearing shall be limited to evidence of:

• mistaken identity;
• proof that the respondent has entered into a payment plan; or
• that the debt has been discharged in bankruptcy.

The Division and the Board shall not hear evidence on whether the licensee actually failed to pay. That merits question belongs to IDOR or HFS. PSI's trap is an option that lets the Auction Advisory Board relitigate the tax assessment. It cannot.

20-95: $50 returned payment, then 30 days to automatic terminate or deny

225 ILCS 407/20-95 covers a check or other payment returned unpaid, or a credit or debit card that is invalid, expired, declined, or dishonored. The person shall pay, in addition to the amount already owed, a fee of $50. The Department notifies the person that the check was returned and that the person shall pay by certified check or money order the amount of the returned check plus the $50 fee within 30 calendar days after the date of the notification.

If, after those 30 calendar days, the person has not submitted the remittance, the Department shall automatically terminate the license or deny the application without a hearing. After termination or denial, the person must petition for restoration or issuance and may be subject to additional discipline or fines. The Secretary may waive the 20-95 fines in individual cases where they would be unreasonable or unnecessarily burdensome.

This is not 20-80 emergency suspension and not 20-20 tax termination. It is a bounced-payment statute with a $50 add-on and a hard 30-calendar-day fuse.

Clock sheet

Scenario A. Service of 20-43 charges lands on March 1. The hearing is set for April 10 (more than 30 days out). The under-oath answer is due March 21. Filing nothing is default on March 21, not on April 10.

Scenario B. The Secretary summary-suspends on June 1 for converted escrow. The hearing must commence by July 1 (30 calendar days). The licensee asks to continue to July 15. The suspension stays in effect through the continuance.

Scenario C. IDOR certifies a final tax assessment. 1440.280 notice goes out July 1. Unless IDOR proves correction, the license auto-terminates July 31. A hearing requested in that window cannot relitigate the tax; it can show the Division grabbed the wrong person, a payment plan exists, or bankruptcy discharged the debt.

Scenario D. Renewal is paid with a check that bounces. 20-95 adds $50. Notice starts a 30-calendar-day certified-check clock. Miss it, and the license terminates without a 20-43 hearing.