A group of medical cannabis business license applicants filed anonymous lawsuits alleging the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission wrongly rejected their applications submitted last month.

The lawsuits allege the commission notified the plaintiffs 10 days after the application deadline that their paperwork was missing certain required documents and did not give applicants time to submit the documents.

The commission has already agreed to fully refund thousands of dollars in fees for those who were disqualified.

Out of 322 applications for both cultivation centers and dispensaries, 16 applications were flagged as inadequate for reasons similar to those described by the complaints, according to the state Department of Finance and Administration.

The complaints were prepared by Alex Gray, an attorney with the Little Rock law firm Steel, Wright, Gray & Hutchinson. In the lawsuits, Gray wrote his clients submitted their bids to open a licensed cultivation center and dispensary several days before the deadline on Sept. 18.

According to the complaints, at first, the applicants were told their bids were complete, but 10 days after the deadline, they received a follow up notice that they were still missing documents. Part of the confusion was due to the information the application requested. For example, it was unclear whether applicants had to provide only a driver’s license or one of several documents verifying a date of birth.

The commission stated those who did not submit at least two forms of documentation would not meet the requirements.

“Plaintiffs relied on the Commission’s numerous assurances that the application was complete,” Gray said. “The Commission should be ordered to consider the application on its merits rather than erroneously rejecting it.”

The state’s medical cannabis program may be delayed due to the time it takes to conduct FBI background checks on the applicants.

“We will not have a full-fledged industry up and running on July 1 of 2018,” commission Chairman Steven Hoffman said.