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Hey all,

I am in the process of finishing my Character and Fitness portion of my application to the bar, and I have a question regarding the level of detail.

When it asks about things like traffic tickets, parking tickets, etc. the application asks questions like "Case number, Date, Fine paid, Date of disposition, etc." A lot of these tickets are years old, I don't have the information for them, and some of them are even from counties I cannot recall (I got one ticket in some random Alabama county on a road trip, and have no clue what it was).

My question is this: If on the application, I simply estimate the dates, and say something like "N/A" for "county," or guess, or say "N/A" for "case number" will my application be denied off of this?

Part of me thinks maybe they don't expect you to know all of this information, and they just expect a good faith effort, but another part of me worries that if they ask a question it is your obligation to find the answer, regardless of the difficulty. Thoughts?

throwaway1222 wrote:Hey all,

I am in the process of finishing my Character and Fitness portion of my application to the bar, and I have a question regarding the level of detail.

When it asks about things like traffic tickets, parking tickets, etc. the application asks questions like "Case number, Date, Fine paid, Date of disposition, etc." A lot of these tickets are years old, I don't have the information for them, and some of them are even from counties I cannot recall (I got one ticket in some random Alabama county on a road trip, and have no clue what it was).

My question is this: If on the application, I simply estimate the dates, and say something like "N/A" for "county," or guess, or say "N/A" for "case number" will my application be denied off of this?

Part of me thinks maybe they don't expect you to know all of this information, and they just expect a good faith effort, but another part of me worries that if they ask a question it is your obligation to find the answer, regardless of the difficulty. Thoughts?

Whatever info you have, you disclose, and what you don't, you don't. Instead of using n/a you can write a brief explanation as to why you don't have or don't remember. I didn't have an issue. I have an old car accident that I have no info on but an approximate date of accident. I only wrote a brief description and the approximate date of accident.

Be like me: don't have traffic/parking tickets =p

But seriously, I think they expect you to have detailed information for that kind of thing (like case numbers and such). That's why during law school they expected you to start the bar application early so you could gather/hunt down all of these minute details.

I'll put my 2 cents in, I used estimated dates on my applications so long as you know the offense, etc. For 3 states I did this and I was fine, though I amended after getting a driving record (just the dates of offenses). I'm admitted in a 3 states now, including one whose C&F is one of the toughest in the nation!!!

Look yourself up in the state court systems as the info should be there for everything except camera tickets.

You can go to your state DMV website, plug in your drivers' license number, pay a small fee (~$10) and get your full driving record. I found that if you call up your car insurance company too, they have a lot of information on your driving record (USAA was able to track down an old drivers' license number from 10 years ago from another state for me).

mec215 wrote:You can go to your state DMV website, plug in your drivers' license number, pay a small fee (~$10) and get your full driving record. I found that if you call up your car insurance company too, they have a lot of information on your driving record (USAA was able to track down an old drivers' license number from 10 years ago from another state for me).

Thanks, but I already did this (its actually another requirement for the C and A app). Unfortunately the record didn't list anything, and I am not really sure why.

Using estimated dates is fine, just be sure to note that you tried your hardest to get the relevant records. My application for NY read like "Around 2005, I was pulled over for speeding, 85 in a 65, in San Francisco, CA. I went to traffic school and the ticket was dismissed."

My application went through without any questions.

As long as you disclose that you were ticketed, you will be okay. Provide as much info as you can find. And if you can't find info, explain that.