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Board accepts change removing middle-name requirement from advertising rule; votes to proceed with modified regulation
Summary
After a public comment from CAMFT and analysis by legal counsel, the board removed a requirement that advertisements include a practitioner's middle name or suffix and approved the modified advertisement regulation text for the 15‑day public comment period.
The Board of Behavioral Sciences voted Aug. 22 to adopt a modified version of proposed advertising regulations that removes a requirement that licensees include a middle name or suffix in public advertising.
Background and comment
The board had proposed amended advertising rules that, among other changes, required licensees to disclose their full legal name (first, middle and last) in advertisements. The California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) submitted a written comment saying that requiring a middle name or suffix would be burdensome, practically difficult to implement across signage, email signatures and social media, and would not materially aid consumer verification because the license number remains the primary public verification tool.
Board counsel and staff presented legal considerations and recommended removing the middle-name requirement. Regulations counsel noted constitutional limits on speech and precedent indicating the board should minimize requirements that are not necessary to prevent misleading advertising. Counsel…
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