Hello, Members,
On Thursday, January 27 a hearing will be held in Olympia on our agency licensing legislation, HB 1205. This message is to give you a clearer understanding of the nature and intent of this bill.
After discussions with legislators, lobbyists, our board, reporters, and, most important, the Department of Licensing (DoL), we have adopted DoL’s advice as to the best way to deal with issues of reformatting (stretching), padding (charging page rates for word Indexes), overcharging, gifting, and other questionable practices which have arisen in the reporting industry in Washington in recent years. Some of the problems are mentioned in the RCW and others will be the subject of rule-making later in WACs.
Questions have arisen as to the nature of this change from certification to licensing and its impact on reporting firms. It has been made clear to us by both our attorney and Susan Colard at DoL that we are not licensed. In fact, we are the only profession they supervise which is not and there are significant differences. A license is a property right issued by the police power of the state without which one cannot practice a profession. A certificate is only a document attesting to the completion of some course of study or recognition of achievement in one’s field. Nevada and other states have similar language which we have drawn upon. One further comment, a license is a property right and may only by modified or removed by due process of law. Thus, the provisions in Section 11 providing for hearings, etc. Thus I believe a license is really more valuable than a certificate.
Here are some general concepts offered by our lawyer about license versus certification:
“A license is a permission to do something that otherwise is forbidden. For instance, a driver’s license is considered mandatory to drive a car on the public roads.
“A license is given by the government and is a government privilege. It therefore presumes that the activity in question is a privilege, not a right.
“The purpose of licensing, whether admitted or not, is to restrict entry and control a profession or activity.
“Certification is a statement or declaration that one has completed a course of study, passed an examination, or otherwise met specified criteria for certification.
“Certification is a private matter, issued by a private organization. It does not involve the police power of the state and is not a state privilege.
“Licensing increases the power of the government. The power to decide whom to consult for services shifts from the consumer to government licensing board.
“Licensing restricts entry into a particular field of activity. Certification does not restrict entry at all. It merely informs and distinguishes those who have completed courses or examinations pertaining to a field of work.”
To ease this transition, current CCRs will be “grandfathered” into the new system. All business owners now need a state general business license (the UBI system). If a reporter or firm contracts with other CCRs for pay, he or she will need a “business-specific license” from DoL which will substitute for the general license. Fees should not increase. The application form requires only basic information with no exam or experience requirement.
Please refer to House Bill 1205 as the “final” form of the bill rather than Senate Bill 5052. Through inadvertence an earlier version was filed in the Senate and it has now been superseded by House Bill 1205.
Dave Storey
WCRA President
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