Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Licensing of Lawyers and Doctors and some more surprising professions

Can it be that Texas has only 22 licensed matchmakers?
(But 73 licensed ringside physicians?)
You can search Texas licenses by type here , in a drop down menu that starts with airconditioning contractors and ends with water well drillers, with matchmakers and many others in between.

Licensing plays a big role in the regulation of some markets, and not just the markets you would suspect, like those for doctors and lawyers. Some of the questions that come up in the licensing biz can be gleaned from the url's of the decisions they generate, like this one: http://www.license.state.tx.us/cosmet/cosmet.htm#eyelashes .
(That's from the Statement from TDLR about applying false eyelashes, eyelash tabbing and eyelash extensions and whether a person must hold a cosmetology license in order to perform these procedures.)

And, since you asked, here's the Texas ruling on fish pedicures.

Across state lines, there's some uniformity in how doctors and lawyers are treated, although not so much that moving from state to state is always easy. And there are some notable differences between doctors and lawyers.

Q. In how many states can a new medical school graduate be licensed to practice medicine right after passing the necessary exams (i.e. before doing at least one year of supervised clinical experience as a resident)?

A. Zero (although no information is available at this time on the Solomon Islands and the Northern Marianas, see State-specific Requirements for Initial Medical Licensure compiled by the Federation of State Medical Boards.

Q. In how many states can a new law school graduate be licensed to practice law after passing the necessary exams?

A. In all of them, unless I'm badly misreading the Comprehensive Guide toBar Admission Requirements 2009, published by the National Conference of Bar Examiners.

Q. What do Mississipi, Missouri, Texas and the Northern Marianas Islands have in common?
A. Those are the American jurisdictions in which a felony conviction is an automatic bar to admission to the legal bar, according to "CHART II: Character and Fitness Determinations" in the link above. (That doesn't mean felons get a free pass in other jurisdictions, just that their disqualification isn't categorical and automatic. E.g. in Florida, a felony conviction is "Not an automatic bar, but restoration of civil rights is required.")

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