For residents & fellows facing discipline
Probation. Administrative leave. A fitness-for-duty referral. A committee hearing where your lawyer must sit silently. A resignation deadline set for the morning. These follow a pattern, and the pattern has rules, deadlines, and defenses.
A nonprofit in formation, built by a dismissed resident and his attorney. Intake is free. We take matters pro bono where we can, and we connect you with counsel in your state when that is the better fit.
167,083
active residents and fellows in ACGME-accredited programs (ACGME, AY 2024–2025)
2,531
residents left their programs before completion in a single academic year (ACGME, 2023–2024)
>90%
of decided medical-education lawsuits were won by institutions. Early counsel and a preserved record are not optional (Academic Medicine, 2003)
180 days
is the general EEOC charge deadline. Discrimination claims expire while you’re still deciding what to do (EEOC)
If a deadline is near
Some institutions give a resident only a day or two to decide between resignation and dismissal. Mark the deadline on the intake form and we will triage it the same day.
Save a copy of your contract, the institutional grievance and due process policy, and every written notice you have received. Policies change year to year, and the version in force on your dates is the one that matters.
Reach out at any of these moments
Earlier is easier, but later is never pointless. There is no stage where we would rather you had stayed silent.
Dr. Mushtaq’s Story
A PGY-2 rated “Meets Expectations” in every domain stopped a procedure mid-shift because he was too fatigued to do it safely, the decision residents are trained to make. What happened next is why this organization exists.
I made a safety decision. I stopped a procedure on myself. That is supposedly the thing they teach us to do.Dr. Quddarat MushtaqRead the full story
The Pattern
Each one has its own rules, and its own mistakes to avoid in the first 72 hours.
Scheduled at an odd hour, with more people in the room than you expected. What you say is being recorded in someone’s notes. What you’re not told is deliberate.
“Paid leave” sounds harmless. It removes you from the building while a record is assembled without you, sometimes while you’re on protected medical leave.
Forced medical exams have a federal legal standard: job-related, consistent with business necessity, based on objective evidence. Not vibes.
Short notice, no recording, no questions allowed. You can still preserve every objection in writing, if you know to do it before you walk in.
A deadline, a promise about your file, and the documents you’d need to decide, withheld. Licensing boards will still ask about that resignation forever.
Evaluations dated before events they describe. Summatives created after a dismissal. Metadata doesn’t lie, if you know to preserve it.
From the Blog
Practical guidance
If you are facing suspension, non-renewal, non-promotion, or dismissal, your institution must provide due process. The hearing is won or lost on the record and the institution's own procedures, and preparation looks different from what most residents expect.
Practical guidance
Certifying boards, not your program, set the rules for training completion and board eligibility windows. The American Board of Family Medicine is a concrete example of how the timelines and the required months of training interact.
Practical guidance
Accredited sponsoring institutions are required to maintain written policies for resident grievances and for adverse actions. The version in force on your dates is the document your case turns on.
The intake is confidential and costs nothing. And if you’re not the one in trouble, send this to the resident who is. They’ll know why you sent it.