Changes to the Professional Ethics Manual

The ACPE Board of Directors approved the following changes to the ACPE Professional Ethics Manual at their May meeting. This change to Section II. Complaint Basics adds a section E. Duty of Cooperation, Confidentiality and Professionalism for parties, whether an ACPE member or not, that are engaged in a complaint process.

The additional section is copied below:

E. Duty of Cooperation, Confidentiality and Professionalism 

1. Parties involved in an ethics complaint must: 
   1. Adhere to the ACPE Code of Professional Ethics; 
   2. Cooperate with those involved in any aspect of reviewing, mediating, investigating or adjudicating an ethics complaint. Under no circumstances may any party make any misleading, disparaging or threatening comments against those involved with the processing of complaints, including staff and consultants;  
   3. Respect confidentiality as outlined in section VIII of this manual, and; 
   4. Respond to requests for information in a timely, thorough and professional manner. 
2. Any alleged violations of this section will be reviewed by the Initial Review Panel (IRP) who shall make the final determination with regards to whether a violation of this section has occurred. If the IRP determines that this section has been violated it may: 
   1. Dismiss the complaint if it determines that the complainant’s non-compliance substantially interferes with the processing of the case; 
   2. Restrict the offending party’s submission of information;  
   3. Deny the right to appeal a final determination or sanctions. 
   4. Warn the offending party of the violation and inform them of further sanction if any further violations occur. 
3. Violations found shall be reported to the hearing panel who may consider any such violation in its findings, determinations or sanctions.  
4. Nothing in this section restricts or limits in any way the right of persons or entities wrongfully accused, disparaged or defamed by parties from seeking redress against an offending party in state or federal court. 

The reasons for adding this section to the manual is to protect the process from detrimental actions that inhibit or undermine processing an ethics complaint. This section also helps to protect our investigators, commissioners, and staff from behaviors that would be considered unethical, or when a member disagrees with decisions related to a case.

Please feel free to contact me directly with any questions or comments related to our commission’s work, our manual or our Code of Professional Ethics.