Mississippi Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

At a Mississippi Real Estate Commission disciplinary hearing, the charges against a licensee must be established by:

• a.a preponderance of the evidence
• b.clear and convincing evidence✓
• c.proof beyond a reasonable doubt
• d.substantial evidence in the record

Miss. Code Section 73-35-23 says it twice — once for hearings before the Commission in subsection (1) and again for hearings before an administrative hearing officer in subsection (7): "The clear and convincing standard of proof shall be used to examine factors during all hearings." SB 2423 (2025 Regular Session), ch. 365, effective July 1, 2025, put it there, replacing "preponderance of the evidence." That makes the preponderance answer the one a study guide printed before mid-2025 would give, and it is now wrong. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is the criminal standard and has never applied to a Mississippi license hearing. Substantial evidence is the deferential test a circuit court uses when it reviews the Commission's decision on appeal under Section 73-35-25, not the burden the Commission carries at the hearing itself.

A Mississippi licensee is charged with a license-law violation. Before the hearing the licensee is entitled to:

• a.fifteen days' notice and the option of a hearing officer✓
• b.thirty days' notice and a hearing before a circuit judge
• c.ten days' notice and a hearing before Commission staff
• d.sixty days' notice and a jury in the licensee's county

Section 73-35-23(1) requires that the licensee be given fifteen (15) days' notice of the hearing on the charges filed, together with notice of the option of appearing before the Commission or before an administrative hearing officer under subsection (7), and a copy of the complaint. The hearing officers are staff attorneys designated by the Attorney General who must not hold an MREC license, and their hearings sit in the City of Jackson. Commission staff do not preside — the whole point of the administrative-hearing option the Legislature required by July 1, 2022 is a decision-maker outside the Commission. A circuit judge and the thirty-day clock belong to the appeal: Section 73-35-25 sends an aggrieved licensee to circuit court within thirty days of service of notice of the Commission's action, where the case is heard without a jury.

Under Mississippi's complaint-resolution deadlines, a complaint must be dismissed or moved to a formal complaint within:

• a.30 days, with final disposition within six months
• b.60 days, with final disposition within 180 days
• c.120 days, with final disposition within one year✓
• d.180 days, with final disposition within two years

Section 73-35-23(9), added by SB 2423 (2025 Regular Session), ch. 365, runs two clocks from the date written notice of the commencement of an investigation is given to the licensee and the licensee's responsible broker. The first: dismissal or issuance of a formal complaint within one hundred twenty (120) days. The second: final dismissal, a final ruling on any formal complaint, or entry of an agreed dispositional order within one (1) year. The one-year limit bends only for scheduling — an administrative hearing may be set up to sixty days beyond it where hearing officers are not reasonably available — and the subsection says in terms that the limit shall not deprive a licensee of the administrative-hearing option. The 30-, 60- and 180-day figures appear nowhere in the chapter.

Which action against a licensee is within the Mississippi Real Estate Commission's own authority?

• a.Sentencing the licensee to ninety days in county jail
• b.Ordering the licensee to pay the complainant damages
• c.Attaching the commission the licensee's firm is holding
• d.Issuing subpoenas for witnesses and for documents✓

Section 73-35-23(3) empowers the Commission to issue subpoenas for the attendance of witnesses and the production of books and papers, and its process extends to all parts of the state; subsection (4) has a court enforce a subpoena a witness ignores, the same way it would in a civil case. What the Commission cannot do is act as a court. The fines and jail terms in Section 73-35-31 — $500 to $1,000 and up to ninety days for an individual's first violation — follow a criminal conviction obtained in court. Damages are likewise a court remedy: Section 73-35-31(2) lets an aggrieved person sue for up to four times the compensation a violator received, but in a court of competent jurisdiction. Nothing in the chapter gives the Commission a lien on a licensee's commission. Its own remedies are refusal, suspension and revocation under Section 73-35-21, plus injunctive proceedings under Section 73-35-23(2).