6.1 Grounds for Disciplinary Action

Why disciplinary grounds are a Pass/Fail JP topic

The Mississippi Pass/Fail Jurisprudence Examination does not only ask what you may do in a session. It also asks when the Mississippi State Board of Examiners for Licensed Professional Counselors (the Board) may take a license away, fence a practice, or issue a public rebuke. Title 30 Part 2201 Rule 8.1, as compiled in the Board’s Current.pdf labeled Effective 09/16/2025, is the Chapter 8 list. Miss. Code § 73-30-21 is the statute. Rule 3.2.J is a Board-operations restatement with different numbering. Public license-search orders often charge Rule 3.2.J together with Rule 7.1 and named American Counseling Association (ACA) Code sections. Mixing those three lists is a high-yield mistake.

This OpenExamPrep section is independent study material for the applicant Pass/Fail JP exam. It is not a Board, Center for Credentialing & Education (CCE), National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), or ACA publication, and it does not claim approval by any of those bodies. Rule 8.1.K makes an ACA Code breach independently disciplinable in Mississippi because the Board wrote that ground into its rules. That is a Mississippi-rule fact. It is not a claim that this guide has any relationship with ACA, CCE, or NBCC.

Confirm the live Current.pdf before test day. The Board’s statutes-and-rules page, as opened for this chapter, labels the same Current.pdf file with an effective date of 03/02/2026. The Chapter 8 text opened here matches the 09/16/2025 Final-Rules compilation. If a newer effective compilation changes letters or waiting periods, use the live Board PDF.

Rule 8.1: process first, then the A–K catalog

Rule 8.1 opens with process, then grounds. The Board may, after notice and opportunity for a hearing, restrict, suspend, revoke, or refuse to issue or renew a license or may reprimand the Licensee for the following reasons, including, but not limited to:

Rule 1.4.T defines a Licensee as a counselor who holds a current license from this Board, so Chapter 8 reaches Provisional Licensed Professional Counselor (P-LPC) and Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) credentials. The listed remedies are administrative. They are not the § 73-30-19 misdemeanor fine for unlicensed title use, and they are not a criminal sentence. “Including, but not limited to” means A–K is the published catalog, not a promise that no other rule-based charge can ever appear.

Rule 8.1.A and 8.1.B are filing and money gates: an incomplete application or unpaid required fees can support refusal to issue or renew. Rule 8.1.C is a court-competence or guardianship fact, not a colleague’s informal worry that someone “seems burned out.” Rule 8.1.E is false swearing under oath or affirmation — a jurisprudence and application-file problem, not a casual misstatement in a hallway. Rule 8.1.F and 8.1.J are the fraud pair: obtaining a credential by deceit, or helping someone else do it. Rule 8.1.G is grossly negligent or incompetent practice. Rule 8.1.H is an intentional statute violation. Rule 8.1.I is a Board-rule violation even when the ACA Code is not the cited text.

Three lists, three numbering systems

§ 73-30-21(1) (2025 Mississippi Code compilation; last amended Laws of 2022, ch. 320, § 6, effective July 1, 2022) lets the Board, after notice and opportunity for a hearing, suspend, revoke or refuse to issue or renew a license or the privilege to practice, or reprimand, if the person has:

• (a) been adjudged by any court to be mentally incompetent or had a guardian of person appointed;
• (b) been convicted of a felony;
• (c) sworn falsely under oath or affirmation;
• (d) obtained a license or certificate or the privilege to practice by fraud, deceit or other misrepresentation;
• (e) engaged in professional counseling in a grossly negligent or incompetent manner;
• (f) intentionally violated any provision of this article;
• (g) violated any rules or regulations of the board; or
• (h) aided or assisted another in falsely obtaining a license or the privilege to practice.

The statute’s (1) list does not name the ACA Code. It does not use the word restrict, does not list unpaid fees, and (b) is felony only — not a misdemeanor involving Moral Turpitude. Compact privilege-to-practice refusals, the statute says, follow the Professional Counseling Compact instead of subsection (1). § 73-30-21(5) adds that a license or privilege-to-practice certificate is property of the Board and must be surrendered on demand. § 73-30-21(7) is a separate child-support suspension track under §§ 93-11-157 or 93-11-163; if those support statutes conflict with Chapter 30, the support statutes control.

Rule 3.2.J is the Board-operations version. After notice and opportunity for a hearing the Board may restrict, suspend, revoke, refuse to issue or renew, or reprimand for ten numbered reasons. 3.2.J.2 is grossly negligent or incompetent practice (Rule 8.1.G). 3.2.J.3 is conviction of a felony (not the 8.1.D moral-turpitude misdemeanor). 3.2.J.7 is violation of the ACA Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice adopted by the Board (Rule 8.1.K). 3.2.J.8 is violation of Board rules (Rule 8.1.I). Public orders often cite 3.2.J even when the outline you tabulated for study is Chapter 8.

Rule 7.1 is the practice-standards hook. Persons licensed by the Board shall adhere to all parts of the current ACA Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice except parts superseded by state law, policy, or rules and regulations adopted by the Board. A public order that charges 7.1 plus named ACA sections is using that hook. Rule 7.1 does not convert this OpenExamPrep chapter into an ACA product.

If an item quotes Rule 8.1.D, the published ground includes a misdemeanor involving Moral Turpitude. If an item quotes § 73-30-21(1)(b) or Rule 3.2.J.3, the published ground is felony conviction. Do not “harmonize” those sentences into one homemade crime list. Match the source the stem names.

Why 8.1.K is independently disciplinable

If an item asks why an ACA A.4 or A.6 breach can cost a Mississippi license, the Mississippi answer is Rule 8.1.K (and, in public charging language, 3.2.J.7 and 7.1). The Board adopted the ACA Code as a disciplinary standard. That is why an ethics-code breach can proceed even when the conduct is not a felony and even when § 73-30-21(1) never says “ACA.” Do not answer that the Board may act “because OpenExamPrep follows ACA” or because CCE or NBCC said so.

A Board license-search record current as of September 18, 2026 illustrates the pleading pattern without using client names or clinical details. A April 10, 2024 public disposition charged ACA A.1.a (Primary Responsibility), A.4.a (Avoiding Harm), A.5 (Prohibited Non-counseling Roles and Relationships), A.6 (Managing and Maintaining Boundaries and Professional Relationships), C.1 (Knowledge and Compliance Standards), and I.1.b (Ethical Decision Making), and Board Rules 3.2.J.2 and 7.1 (grossly negligent or incompetent counseling, and violating the ACA Code adopted by the Board). The posted summary said the respondent would surrender the license with disciplinary action under then-cited Rule 1.4.EE and 5.4.F and would not be allowed to practice professional counseling in Mississippi. In the 09/16/2025 Current.pdf, Rule 1.4.EE / 5.4.F is Revoked Status; disciplinary Surrendered Status is Rule 1.4.GG / 5.4.H. The same search record displayed Status: Revoked on September 18, 2026, and showed later October 29, 2025 order rows with no violation text posted in the extract opened here. Quote a public order as it reads. Do not invent client facts, and do not “correct” a historical citation by silently swapping current letters onto an older order.

A second public record shows how 8.1.K-style ACA charges can travel with later rule-violation charges. A January 31, 2024 agreed order cited ACA A.1.b (Records and Documentation), A.1.c (Counseling Plans), and B.6.a (Creating and Maintaining Records and Documentation). After an August 27, 2025 administrative hearing, the Board charged failure to complete that agreed order as violations of Rule 3.2.J.7 and 3.2.J.8, then placed a formal reprimand in the file with additional conditions and Rule 8.2.G costs. That is how an ACA documentation case becomes a Mississippi rule case when an agreed order is not finished. Sanctions and costs are the next sections; the exam-ready point here is the charging vocabulary: 3.2.J.2 / 8.1.G for gross negligence, 3.2.J.7 / 8.1.K / 7.1 for the ACA Code, 3.2.J.8 / 8.1.I for Board rules.

JP scenario: the dual-relationship rumor that is already a Rule 8.1 problem

A Hattiesburg LPC, Jordan, begins a romantic relationship with a current client’s adult sibling who lives in the same household and attends family sessions. A former colleague tells Jordan, “Mississippi can only touch felonies; ACA is just association guidance unless NBCC files something.” That advice fails three published texts at once. Rule 8.1.G / 3.2.J.2 reaches grossly negligent or incompetent counseling. Rule 8.1.K / 3.2.J.7 / 7.1 reaches the ACA Code the Board adopted, including A.4 harm and A.6 boundary provisions of the kind public orders actually plead. § 73-30-21(1)(b) is felony conviction; it is not a shield against 8.1.K. Jordan’s next move is not to wait for a criminal indictment. It is to treat the Board’s own A–K list as live Mississippi law, print Current.pdf Chapter 8, and stop the prohibited relationship. If a complaint is already in the building, the response clock in Rule 8.2 — not a theory that this study resource follows ACA — is what runs.