How EMS Guardian Came to Be

EMS Guardian Offers EMTs and Paramedics the Same Immediate Response They Provide for Everyone Else

The Law Firm of Goyette & Associates Inc.  kept getting phone calls from EMTs and Paramedics seeking representation with Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA)  investigations and asking for career advice because of defamatory complaints made by their peers, which would impact their professional licenses. At first, the influx of EMS calls came as somewhat of a shock to the labor and employment law firm who specializes in administrative hearings and appeals, because the Firm’s flagship practice was representing public employee associations. But after a while it began to make sense. Administrative hearings are very similarto real court hearings, where there is a real judge who makes a decision based on real testimony and we are experts in representing Public Employee Associations members,  including firefighters, EMTs and paramedics. 

The results are the same as well. A botched administrative hearing is just as severe for a police officer as it is for a EMT or paramedic: the officer or medic is done, ruined and they are not going to work in that field again. They have to go back to college or trade school and start over. When faced with such life-shattering possibilities, EMS personnel were seeking out the best attorneys for the job. And Goyette and Associates’ phones kept ringing.

Not surprisingly, Goyette and Associates’ lawyers won every single time they went up against the EMSA and the  grateful EMTs or paramedics were able to keep their licenses, got to go on with their lives and could keep doing the jobs they love. But private representation is not cheap, everyone knows that. Even the simplest letter or phone call can cost thousands. Having a lawyer with the kind of track record of success that Goyette and Associates is known for attend a hearing could cost tens of thousands.

Thanks to 20 years of experience in dealing specifically with disciplinary cases just like a EMSA investigation, the inner workings of an administrative hearing were second nature to Goyette and Associates’ team. They were able to create an efficient, effective model that allowed them to provide top-notch legal representation at a much lower rate (a rate more in line with the rate they gave their Public Safety Associations).

At the time, the Firm was on retainer with approximately 125 different associations in California, which means that the association picks up the tab to represent an individual member of the association. The Goyette team soon realized this isn’t the case with licensing issues with EMTs and paramedics and their associations. Their associations don’t pick up the tab because the associations are advocacy groups; most don’t function like a union.

Paul Goyette  at Goyette and Associates began to think about a way the Firm could help EMTs and medics get access to the legal services they so desperately needed in order to protect their careers. “What if there was a way that we could offer the benefit of a retainer relationship to individual EMS professionals at a cost that would make sense to them?” he said. It just didn’t seem fair to charge a full rate for something that came to the Firm so easily.

So they didn’t. They developed a plan that would provide a full range of legal services and license protection options to EMTs and Paramedics at a price they could really afford. And EMS Guardian was born.

If you are a California EMT, Paramedic or professionally licensed firefighter and your professional license is under investigation, you’ve been notified that there is a complaint against your EMS license, or the EMS Authority has filed an accusation against your EMT or Paramedic license, contact  the license defense attorneys of EMS Guardian right away. We can help defend your license and save your EMS career.  Call us now toll free at 1-800-506-9766 for more information.