The seven-step complaint process

Florida's seven-stage disciplinary route

Remember complaint → investigation → probable cause → administrative complaint → administrative hearing → final order → judicial review. This is the ordinary route; dismissal, mediation of eligible violations, citations, or settlement can change its path.

1. Complaint: DBPR screens for legal sufficiency: ultimate facts showing a violation of governing law or rules. The ordinary complaint is written and signed. Certain anonymous written complaints can be investigated if legally sufficient, substantial, and supported by preliminary inquiry. Withdrawal does not compel DBPR to stop.
2. Investigation: DBPR gathers information. This is not a finding of guilt.
3. Probable cause: A FREC probable cause panel decides by majority vote whether grounds exist to proceed. It may request more investigative information or issue a letter of guidance instead of finding probable cause. The panel must include a current commission member and satisfy the statute's professional and conditional consumer representation requirements.
4. Administrative complaint: Following probable cause, the panel directs DBPR to file formal charges. These charges differ from the initial consumer complaint.
5. Administrative hearing: Disputed material facts ordinarily lead to a formal hearing before a Division of Administrative Hearings administrative law judge, who issues a recommended order. Without disputed material facts, an informal hearing may occur before FREC. Seriousness alone does not decide the hearing type.
6. Final order: FREC takes final agency action, subject to legal limits on reviewing a recommended order. Disciplinary guidelines address severity and repetition; findings of aggravating or mitigating circumstances can support a departure.
7. Judicial review: An adversely affected party may seek review of final agency action in the appropriate district court of appeal. This is separate from the administrative hearing.

Role check: DBPR investigates and prosecutes; the panel screens for probable cause; an administrative law judge handles disputed facts in a formal hearing; FREC issues the final agency order. Neither probable cause nor a recommended order is the final disciplinary decision.