A party holding a license issued by an administrative agency must exhaust its administrative remedies in a disciplinary proceeding brought by the licensing agency under the APA before challenging any resulting administrative decision by petitioning for administrative mandamus under CCP 1094.5. In the administrative mandamus proceeding, the licensee may seek a judicial interpretation of any statutes that it thinks important to the result. The licensee may not short-cut the process by filing an action seeking declaratory relief interpreting the statutes before the administrative proceedings have been completed.
California Court of Appeal, First District, Division 1 (per curiam); October 11, 2018 (published October 29, 2018); 28 Cal. App. 5th 771