This is a problem and early efforts to be tough by some boards are problematic because once they have thrown the book at someone, they have to throw the book at the next similar complaint even when they think the first was worse than the latter violation. That was explained to me by an administrative lawyer years ago. If the state board acts differently for similar violations, then they risk having violated administrative laws. Kind of a catch 22, especially when the board suspects other more serious violations so they hammer that one person disproportionately then are reluctant to treat anyone differently. Also, the identical violation done by a trainee or licensed appraiser will draw a harsher punishment when the Cert General is involved, especially if the CG signed off on a flawed report by a trainee...which explains a lot why of CGs want nothing to do with training anyone else. So basically, a CG will need to spend as much time on a trainee's report they sign as if they did the report sans trainee and got to keep the whole fee.