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Looking for some guidance here regarding a potential discrepancy between my law school app and NY bar app.

I had listed a few traffic violations/infractions, all of which were ultimately dismissed except for one from 2012. It was a minor incident and resulted in between $100-300 in court costs, but no conviction, so I didn't include it in my law school app (although looking back at the language, I probably should have). I disclosed it in my bar app to be thorough, and the bar has asked me to explain this discrepancy.

How should I respond? I currently wrote out something to the tune of "it was a minor infraction and I only paid court cost, didn't think it was necessary to disclose at the time but wanted to disclose for the bar app to be totally clear." Should I take blame for not disclosing initially or do they not care about that per se? Has this been a major issue for getting barred in NY? I also looked a Reddit forum and they suggested amending the law school application as an option (although over there it was for a more serious incident). Thanks for any advice here.

Anon because profile could out me...

I think you absolutely need to take the blame for not initially disclosing - in hyperbolic terms, the cover up is always worse than the crime. Why was it in court in the first place? Was it that you tried to challenge the ticket in court but lost and so had to pay costs? I'd just be extremely clear about what happened and apologetic for the discrepancy. Trying to shift the blame or minimize looks worse than saying something like, I realize now that I should have disclosed this incident on my law school application and did not do so.

bretby wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 29, 2020 10:46 am

I think you absolutely need to take the blame for not initially disclosing - in hyperbolic terms, the cover up is always worse than the crime. Why was it in court in the first place? Was it that you tried to challenge the ticket in court but lost and so had to pay costs? I'd just be extremely clear about what happened and apologetic for the discrepancy. Trying to shift the blame or minimize looks worse than saying something like, I realize now that I should have disclosed this incident on my law school application and did not do so.

Thanks for the response, I basically hired a law firm to take care of the ticket and they gave me back a receipt with a "congratulations, no points or conviction on your record, but you have to pay $200 in court fees." On the court website it just shows up as "penalty fees"

I will be sure to add a sentence or two about taking responsibility for not disclosing it, while also explaining the circumstances as to why I didn't include it in the law school app (e.g. it was relatively minor, it was ultimately dismissed, etc). Do you think it will be helpful to include a PDF copy of the receipt I got from the law firm?