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I am working on my C&F for the California Bar and it's telling me that I need to document a "driving without a driver's license" charge in CA. (Apparently you have to get a driver's license within 10 days of establishing "residence" in CA and driving with an out-of-state driver's license is considered the same as driving without a license, but I digress.)

The problem is, the ticket was issued over 10 years ago and I no longer remember which police department issued the ticket, or the ticket number. My question is twofold:

1. I don't even remember if I was convicted. I just remember showing up to court with my new CA driver's license and only having to pay the court cost. I don't remember if I had to plead nolo contendere. Is there some kind of criminal record that I can request see how the case was resolved?

2. How do I go about finding the copious amounts of documentation that the C&F form wants? I assume I need to find the police department to get the arresting officer's report, but because this ticket was issued in LA, it could have been issued by 2 or 3 different law enforcement agencies.

I had something similar happen when I was doing the research for my packet. Here is what I suggest: Try going to the courthouse. They have internal computers on site that allow you to look up past criminal or civil cases (depending on county -- how far the system goes back) Or the criminal clerk, if you bring valid ID will generally be nice enough to do the search for you.

There is a good chance that the case file has already been destroyed, however for a fee, the clerk can provide you a certified copy of their record showing the disposition of the case, and it generally provides enough information, and includes a statement that the documents themselves have been destroyed -- but it *Should* satisfy the Bar. I haven't submitted my packet yet, So I can't tell you my personal outcome, but one of my classmates, who is now practicing -- Had the same issue and gave me the advice on how to go about getting the information, and it was accepted. I should also say that it was the San Francisco office that reviewed his packet, and will be reviewing mine, so I don't know if that changes things any.

I hope that helps.

So you didn't get all the documentation that they asked for on the C&F form? They asked for a bunch of stuff, like police reports and indictments, that I wasn't sure if I even had in my case.

If you can't remember which jurisdiction to go to, try requesting your dmv record/driver history. I'm not in CA, but in my state this would show any ticket, its disposition, and the county and case number it was. Then you can go for there.

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