6.4 Denial of Licensure, Administrative Appeal & Licensure Status Categories

Two adverse-action tracks, not one

Sections 6.1 through 6.3 taught Chapter 8: what a licensee can be disciplined for, how a complaint is processed, and what happens at a hearing. Chapter 5 is the other track. It governs the applicant who is told no, and it names the status a credential can carry afterward. A jurisprudence item that starts “the Board refuses to issue a license to an applicant who…” is a Rule 5.1 item. An item that starts “the Board reprimands a licensed LPC who…” is a Rule 8.1 item. Answer the posture the stem describes.

This OpenExamPrep section is independent study material for the applicant Pass/Fail JP exam. It is not a Board, CCE, NBCC, or ACA publication, and it does not claim approval by any of them.

Rule 5.1: the ten grounds for denying an application

The Board may deny application for licensure for the following reasons, including, but not limited to:

Two phrases carry weight. “Including, but not limited to” means the list is illustrative, so “my conduct is not on the list, therefore the Board must license me” is not an argument the rule supports. And letter J is the applicant-side twin of Rule 8.1.K: ACA standards are enforceable in Mississippi because the Board adopted them, which is also why Rule 7.1 matters to someone who is not licensed yet.

Rule 5.1 versus Rule 8.1, letter by letter

The two catalogs are close enough that a careless reader will answer from the wrong one. Rule 5.1 has ten letters (A–J). Rule 8.1 has eleven (A–K). The extra Rule 8.1 letter is F — obtaining a license or certification by fraud, deceit or other misrepresentation — which makes structural sense, because you cannot fraudulently obtain a credential you have not yet been granted. Rule 8.1 also frames the negligence ground as “practicing” professional counseling in a grossly negligent or incompetent manner, while Rule 5.1.F says “engaging in the conduct of” professional counseling in that manner.

The remedies differ too. Rule 5.1 produces a denial. Rule 8.1 lets the Board, after notice and opportunity for a hearing, restrict, suspend, revoke, or refuse to issue or renew a license, or reprimand the licensee, with the six Rule 8.3 sanctions available singly or in combination. Note that “refuse to issue” appears in Rule 8.1 as well — the two chapters are deliberately overlapping, not mutually exclusive.

Rule 5.2: the administrative hearing and the appeal ladder

A denied applicant is not finished. Rule 5.2.A gives two ways to ask for an administrative hearing, and both are keyed to the next regularly scheduled Board meeting following notice of denial:

1. Submit a request for an administrative hearing ten (10) business days prior to that meeting; or
2. Appear in person at that meeting to request an administrative hearing.

Business days, not calendar days. And the appearance option is a genuine alternative, not a courtesy — an applicant who misses the ten-business-day mail deadline can still show up.

After the hearing, the Board notifies the individual of its final decision (Rule 5.2.B). From there the ladder is the same one Rule 8.4 uses for discipline: appeal to the circuit court of the county of the applicant's residence, or, if the applicant does not reside in Mississippi, to the Hinds County Circuit Court (Rule 5.2.C); then appeal the circuit court's decision to the Mississippi Supreme Court (Rule 5.2.D).

One cross-reference to carry from Chapter 2: a denial issued on a Rule 4.9 pre-licensure determination — the notarized, $25.00 request asking whether a criminal record will disqualify the requester — shall be heard by the Board and appealed in the same manner as a denial of licensure under Rule 5.2. Same forum, same ladder.

Rule 5.3: how long before you may ask again

Rule 5.3 sets one-year floors, and the exam likes to shorten or lengthen them:

• A. After a final decision by the Board not to license, the applicant must wait at least one (1) year before resubmitting a new, complete application packet.
• B. The resubmitted packet must include new evidence for the applicant to be reconsidered. Resending the identical file after twelve months is not reconsideration.
• C. An individual who has been denied renewal may reapply for licensure one (1) year after the Board's decision to refuse to renew.
• D. An individual whose license has been revoked must wait no less than one (1) year after revocation to reapply.
• E. In every case the person must meet all current requirements for licensure and remit all application fees.

“All current requirements” is the sleeper. Requirements are measured at reapplication, under the rules in force then — not under the compilation that was effective when the original application was filed.

A separate one-year clock lives in Rule 2.3.B and is easy to confuse with these. An applicant who has not completed the application process within one (1) calendar year from the date the Board received the application must pay the Reapplication Fee to continue for an additional one (1) year; if the process is still not complete after that additional year, the application becomes void. That is an administrative timeout on a live application, not a penalty following a denial.

Rule 5.4: the ten licensure status categories

Rule 5.4 is a vocabulary rule, and vocabulary rules make clean multiple-choice items. Ten statuses, and the exam will test which ones are disciplinary, which are voluntary, and which are permanent.

Four pairs are the whole test. Surrendered vs. Voluntarily Surrendered: the first follows disciplinary action and needs Board approval; the second is personal and does not. Restricted vs. Suspended: restriction narrows the scope of practice, suspension invalidates the license for a period. Lapsed vs. Revoked: lapsed is a missed renewal deadline with a sixty-day cure window, revoked is a Rule 8.3 sanction with a one-year reapplication floor. Retired vs. Non-Practicing: both are voluntary and both let the person keep a wall certificate, but Retired Status is permanent — returning requires a new application meeting the current qualifications — while Non-Practicing is a renewable annual status with a defined route back.

That route back is worth memorizing as a set, because it is the only place the Board attaches the jurisprudence exam to a 365-day window. Non-practicing licensees renew yearly, pay the $50.00 Annual Non-Practicing Status Fee (Rule 2.1.O), are not required to complete annual CEH, and may retain the wall certificate — but may not practice, supervise, provide distance professional services, or bill. To return to practicing status the licensee must pay the full licensing fee, complete the Mississippi Jurisprudence Exam within the past three hundred sixty-five (365) calendar days, show twelve (12) Continuing Education Hours within the prior 365 days, and complete a background check if the Board requests one. Twelve hours is not the 24 of an ordinary LPC biennial renewal and not the 6 of a P-LPC year; it is its own number.

Removal of a Board member

The adverse-action theme runs upward as well. Under Rule 3.1.C.8, the Board may recommend to the appointing authority the removal of any Board member, or of the Chair, for:

• Malfeasance in office;
• Conviction of a felony or a crime of moral turpitude while in office; or
• Failure to attend three (3) consecutive regular Board meetings within a fiscal year.

No Board member may be removed until after a public hearing of the charges, and at least thirty (30) calendar days prior written notice detailing the charges and stating the date fixed for the hearing must be given. Note the verb: the Board recommends to the appointing authority — the Governor appoints under § 73-30-5, and the Board does not fire its own members.

Jurisprudence scenario: the denied applicant who waited eleven months

DeVon applies for LPC licensure. The Board denies the application under Rule 5.1.E after finding that DeVon swore falsely on the Personal and Licensure History section, and under Rule 5.1.A because a required core course is missing. DeVon receives the notice of denial fourteen days before the Board's next regularly scheduled meeting and decides to “wait and see.” Eleven months later, DeVon remails the identical application packet with a new check.

Three things went wrong. First, review was available and was not used: Rule 5.2.A would have allowed either a written request for an administrative hearing ten business days before that next meeting — which DeVon still had time to file — or simply appearing in person at the meeting to ask for one. Second, Rule 5.3.A requires at least one (1) year after a final decision not to license before a new packet may be resubmitted; eleven months is early. Third, Rule 5.3.B requires the resubmitted packet to include new evidence; an identical file is not reconsideration, and Rule 5.3.E independently requires DeVon to meet all current requirements — which means the coursework rule in force at reapplication, not the one DeVon studied years ago.

Now change the posture. Suppose DeVon had already been a licensed LPC and the same false-swearing conduct surfaced. That is Rule 8.1.E, the Board acts after notice and opportunity for a hearing, and the available outcomes are the six Rule 8.3 sanctions, appealed through Rule 8.4. If the Board revoked, Rule 5.3.D and Rule 8.5.A both set the same one-year floor before reapplying. If instead DeVon asked to hand the license back as part of that disciplinary matter, the resulting status is Surrendered under Rule 5.4.H — which requires Board approval — and not Voluntarily Surrendered under 5.4.I, which is the personal-reasons category.

Exam traps for this section

• Answering a denial stem from the Rule 8.1 list, or a discipline stem from the Rule 5.1 list.
• Adding “obtaining a license by fraud, deceit or other misrepresentation” to Rule 5.1; that letter is Rule 8.1.F.
• Counting the Rule 5.2 hearing request in calendar days; the rule says ten business days, and in-person appearance at the meeting is an alternative.
• Appealing a denial to the wrong venue; it is the county of the applicant's residence, or Hinds County for a non-resident.
• Treating the Rule 5.3 one-year wait as satisfied by resubmitting the same packet, or forgetting that current requirements apply.
• Confusing Surrendered (disciplinary, needs Board approval) with Voluntarily Surrendered (personal reasons), or Restricted (scope narrowed) with Suspended (license invalidated for a period).
• Forgetting Memorial Status, or treating Retired Status as reversible by paying a fee; it is permanent absent a new application meeting current qualifications.