Yes. The process for requesting testing accommodations is separate from the application to take an exam. You are not required to wait for a determination regarding your testing accommodations to register for an exam, and doing so is not recommended.

If you are requesting to change your testing accommodation test center to a different testing accommodation location, you may submit the request through the Applicant Portal or by emailing testing.accommodations@calbar.ca.gov by the test center change request deadline. Space is subject to availability, and it is not guaranteed that your request will be available.

In preparation for the PLP application opening on September 1, 2025, you are encouraged to: 

• Submit an Application for Determination of Moral Character as soon as possible in the Applicant Portal if you do not have a valid positive moral character determination or a pending moral character application. 

• Sign up for the MPRE or ensure you have a passing score on file with the State Bar Office of Admissions. Verify your MPRE status via the status screen in the Applicant Portal. 

• Secure a California attorney who is willing to be your Supervising Lawyer and meets the requirements of rule 9.49. 

By December 31, 2025, you must have a passing MPRE score on file and either a valid positive moral character determination, or an adverse moral character determination that is pending on administrative review by the Committee of Bar Examiners or on appeal in the State Bar Court. We recommend that you fulfill these requirements as soon as possible.

Under rule 9.49, a PLL is allowed to provide a broad array of legal servicesfor clients, including appearing before a court; drafting legal documents,such as contracts, transactional documents, and pleadings; engaging in negotiations and settlement discussions; and providing other legal advice, provided that the work is performed underthe supervision of their Supervising Lawyer. The limits on what a PLL can do, or what needs to be done under direct versus general supervision, are largely left to the Supervising Lawyer to determine based on the readiness of the PLL.

An out-of-state attorney, who is in good standing in their jurisdiction, and does not live, work, or conduct regular business in California can request permission from a California state court (superior court, Court of Appeal, or Supreme Court) to represent their client as counsel pro hac vice, which is a Latin term meaning "for this occasion." PHV is approved for a particular case, and an active licensee of the State Bar of California must be associated as attorney of record for the case. Please refer to rule 9.40 of the California Rules of Court.

No. All documentation and fees related to a PHV renewal must be submitted to the court and not the State Bar of California. Please contact the court if you have questions regarding PHV renewals.

Under rule 9.49.1, individuals who scored between 1390 and 1439 on a California Bar Exam administered between July 2015 and February 2020, as determined by the first read score or the final score, may apply so long as they:

• Have an active (unexpired) positive moral character determination or have submitted a complete Application for Determination of Moral Character. Whether the application is complete is determined by the State Bar.
• Have not received an adverse moral character determination, unless more than two years have elapsed from the date of the final determination. If, when the adverse moral character determination was issued, the Committee of Bar Examiners or the State Bar provided a time frame other than two years for when the participant was eligible to reapply, that other time frame shall control here.

The deadline to submit the Pathway PLP application is December 31, 2023. No applications will be accepted after the deadline. Applicants for the Pathway PLP must have 1) an active positive moral character determination, or 2) have submitted a moral character application that has not resulted in the issuance of an adverse moral character determination. If you have not submitted a moral character application and do not have an active positive determination, you must submit a moral character application no later than December 31, 2023. Please note that your PLP application will not be considered until the moral character application is deemed complete and filed by the State Bar. If you fail to submit a moral character application by December 31, 2023, your PLP application will not be processed.

Under the program for 2020 law graduates, PLLs who attempt the bar exam but do not pass it may continue in the Provisional Licensure Program until the program terminates. Furthermore, they are not required to sit for the bar exam. No further extensions of the program are anticipated. By the end of the program, they must have passed the bar exam to continue in the practice of law.

Please review the information regarding the Moral Character requirement, including the instructions for the Application for Determination of Moral Character and Application for Extension of Determination of Moral Character.

No. You are not eligible to file a moral character application until you commence the study of law and register as a law student with the State Bar. The State Bar has published Moral Character Guidelines to assist applicants for law school and the State Bar in understanding whether their past conduct might impact getting a positive moral character determination, which is a prerequisite for admission to the practice of law.

Maybe. You are required to disclose criminal matters in which you entered a plea of guilty or nolo contendere (no contest), even if the matter ultimately was dismissed without a judgment of conviction being entered or sentence imposed after you completed the terms of a diversion agreement. You are not required to disclose an arrest or charges that did not result in a misdemeanor or felony conviction unless you entered a plea of guilty or nolo contendere (no contest) or the matter is pending when you submit your application or during the processing of your application.

Yes. If you have been found to have violated a college, university, or law school honor code; or have been dropped, suspended, warned, placed on disciplinary probation, expelled, or requested to resign or allowed to resign in lieu of discipline by any college, university, or law school; or otherwise have been subjected to discipline by any such institution or been requested or advised by any such institution to discontinue your studies, you must disclose the incident on the moral character application.

The moral character application requires that at least one of your personal references be an attorney; the attorney may be retired or inactive. If you do not know an attorney who knows you well enough to comment on your character, you may submit the name and contact information of a nonattorney who knows you well enough to complete a questionnaire concerning your character. Neither the attorney nor other personal references may be related to you by blood or marriage, nor can they be reported as a supervisor under the employment section of the moral character application or as a verifying reference under the self-employment section of the moral character application.

No. You are only required to disclose the addresses of the places you have lived within the past eight years, including college and law school residences. If a residence gap is identified due to your extended periods of travel abroad, please report this information in the “Accounting for Gaps in Residence History” section of the moral character application.

Yes. A copy of your moral character application can be requested by submitting a Service Request Form with the applicable fee as a General Request in the Applicant Portal. Please allow approximately 30−45 days to process the request.

The CTAPP reporting deadline is the same as the licensee’s deadline for paying their license fees (Rule 2.5(C) of the Rules of the State Bar). The annual renewal cycle deadline is March 30. This is also the deadline for other requirements (e.g., MCLE compliance, etc.). (Rule 2.11 of the Rules of the State Bar.) For new attorneys, the deadline is 45 days from the invoice date for their fees (Rule 2.12 of the Rules of the State Bar).

If a lawyer is a signatory on a trust account, exercises managerial or primary administrative oversight for a trust account, or is otherwise responsible for complying with any of the requirements or prohibitions in rule 1.15 of the Rules of Professional Conduct—other than the disclosure and agreement requirements in rule 1.15(b) pertaining to depositing a flat fee paid in advance into a lawyer’s or law firm’s operating account—the lawyer is responsible for those funds. The lawyer remains responsible even if other lawyers are also responsible for the safekeeping of funds. The lawyer is ultimately responsible even if nonlawyers are assigned certain accounting tasks for those funds; for example, bookkeeping and banking related to client trust accounts. (See Rules Prof. Conduct, rule 5.3.)

Accounting and recordkeeping activities are only one part of a lawyer’s duties to properly handle entrusted funds. Other duties include, for example, the responsibility for giving notice to the client or other person that funds were received on behalf of the client or other person and identifying and resolving disputes about entitlement to trust funds. These duties ordinarily are not the job of a firm’s bookkeeper. All of these responsibilities are considered nondelegable duties. The proactive regulation, reporting, and monitoring of CTAPP are intended to promote a lawyer’s compliance and prevent avoidable financial harm to clients. The only aspect of CTAPP reporting that can be fulfilled by the lawyer’s firm is the annual registration of client trust accounts by a firm or organization that is registered with the State Bar’s Agency Billing platform.

A licensee is “responsible for client funds and funds entrusted by others under the provisions of rule 1.15 of the Rules of Professional Conduct” within the meaning of this rule if, at any point during the reporting period, they acted as a signatory on a trust account—even if there was no money in the account, exercised managerial or primary administrative oversight for a trust account, or were otherwise responsible for complying with any of the requirements or prohibitions in rule 1.15 of the Rules of Professional Conduct—other than the disclosure and agreement requirements in rule 1.15(b) pertaining to depositing a flat fee paid in advance into a lawyer’s or law firm’s operating account. The requirements and prohibitions in rule 1.15 are not limited to banking and recordkeeping duties and include, for example, the responsibility for giving notice to the client or other person that funds were received on behalf of the client or other person and the duty to identify and discharge liens.

Lawyers who were responsible for entrusted funds in the reporting period must also register, or have their firm register through the State Bar’s Agency Billing application, all client trust accounts, take a self-assessment of client trust account management practices, and certify their compliance with requirements of rule 1.15 of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

If you need to disassociate a client trust account that is no longer active or held by a firm by which you are no longer employed or in practice with, you should:

1. Log in to your My State Bar Profile.
2. Navigate to the CTAPP reporting section.
3. Locate the account you wish to disassociate in your list of accounts.
4. Click on the plus sign (+) on the right-hand side of the screen to expand options.
5. Select the “Update Connection” tab on the account details pop-up.
6. Change the “Connection to Attorney” to “Disassociated/Added in Error.”
7. You will need to provide a disassociation reason and a disassociation effective date.
8. If you are reporting a disassociation effective date more than 30 days after the disassociation date, the system will prompt you for a reason why you are reporting it after the 30-day update deadline. At this time, there is no penalty for noncompliance with the 30-day update requirement. Answering this question truthfully will not result in an increased likelihood of a CTAPP compliance review or investigatory audit. The State Bar’s current focus is on gathering accurate information, educating licensees about their trust account responsibilities (including the 30-day update requirement), and improving overall compliance. There is a 50-character limit on this field.
9. Click the “Save” button.

This process removes the account from your profile for future reporting periods but maintains the historical record as required.