WILLIAM DONALD SCHAEFER, Governor

Ch. 3

GENERAL REVISOR'S NOTE TO ARTICLE:

The Division of Statutory Revision of the Department of
Legislative Reference is charged with revising the law in a
clear, concise, and organized manner, without changing the effect
of the law. A precept of revision has been that, once something
is said, it should be said in the same way every time. To that
end, the language and organization of this article is conformed
to the 18 previously enacted articles.

This article particularly lends itself to a standard format
and consistent phraseology since every title includes provisions
for a regulatory body, provisions for licensing, and prohibited
acts. Accordingly, the Model Guide for Drafting Board,
Commission, and Licensing Provisions, developed in conjunction
with the revision of the Health Occupations Article, has been
used in the revision of this article.

The Model calls for use of the terms "license" and
"licensed" to denote an authorization to practice a particular
occupation that a person who is not licensed in that occupation
may not practice. Throughout this article, the terms
"certification" and "certified" are used to indicate an official
recognition of a person as a qualified practitioner and an
accompanying grant of the exclusive privilege or right to make
certain representations. Thus, a certified person may make
certain representations that an uncertified person may not make,
but the certified person is not authorized to provide any service
that an uncertified person may not provide. In this article, the
term "permit" denotes the authorization of a corporation or
partnership to operate a business through which the practice of a
particular occupation is conducted. None of these terms have any
legal significance in themselves, and the Business Occupations
Article Review Committee easily could have decided to use any of
them in a different sense or to use different terms. The real
significance lies in the substantive provisions in which these
terms appear. However, the Business Occupations Article Review
Committee believes that, if the terms consistently are used as
indicated, the substantive provisions become more easily
understandable.

At various places throughout this article, the terms
"certificate" and "registered" also appear. "Certificate" is
used to signify a sheet of paper used for documentation -- e.g.,
one that documents the grant of a license or certification.
"Certificate" is not used as a substitute for "license",
"certification", or "permit". "Registered" is used only as a
descriptive adjective and does not denote any sort of grant
authority by this State. Thus, references to a "registration"
requirement for students are substituted for the former
references to "student permit[s]".

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