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No. The State Bar is unable to extend the period to request administrative review. The CBE will decide whether to accept an untimely request for administrative review.
The CBE will review your request and your application. The CBE may take any action it deems appropriate, including but not limited to granting you a positive determination, requesting more information, extending an offer of abeyance, or rendering an adverse determination.
If the CBE declines to grant you a positive determination, it will decide how long you must wait before you may submit a new Application for Determination of Moral Character, which could be the same or different from the time that was set by State Bar staff when it made the initial determination.
The notice of the adverse determination will provide you with the date on which you may submit a new Application for Determination of Moral Character. You are encouraged to engage in affirmative rehabilitative activities during the period you must wait to reapply.
Alternatively, you may choose to request administrative review by the Committee of Bar Examiners (CBE). If you request review by the CBE, the date on which you will be eligible to reapply may change, as it will be determined by the CBE in the event it issues an adverse determination.
Please call 415-538-2450 and ask to speak with the Moral Character Person of the Day. Please be prepared to email a screenshot if the issue cannot be resolved over the phone. Some issues may take more time to resolve if technical assistance is necessary.
Some applicants have traveled extensively in the past three years and have numerous addresses to report on the moral character application. You are encouraged to provide as much information pertaining to each residence as can be reasonably recalled. You are responsible for the complete and accurate reporting of information on the application to the best of your ability, and the failure to provide complete responses could result in a delay in the processing of the application.
You must disclose all residences for the past three years, regardless of how long you resided at the location.
No. You are only required to disclose the addresses of the places you have lived within the past three years, including college and law school residences.
No. Some references may not be contacted. You may wish to remind your references to check their email spam folders periodically and to use the Google Chrome internet browser, if possible, when submitting the questionnaires to avoid potential technical issues.
Report military enlistment in the “Current/Previous Employment section” and the “Military Services” section of the moral character application. List your last duty station, supervisor, date of enlistment, and date of discharge (or the date you left active duty if you are currently on inactive status). An applicant who is discharged from active duty must also provide a DD-214 military discharge document that clearly indicates the type of discharge.
Contact the employer and attempt to obtain the information. If you do not remember your supervisor’s name or your supervisor is no longer with the business, please enter "Human Resources" into the Full Name of Supervisor field and enter the appropriate information into the Email Address of Supervisor and Phone Number of Supervisor fields.
If the company is no longer in business (defunct), contact information will not be required once you indicate that the company is no longer in business.
Do NOT use your own email address or phone number.
The State Bar does not refer clients to lawyers or provide legal advice. We provide a directory of certified Lawyer Referral Services in your area who may be able to help you find a lawyer. Please see our Find Legal Professionals section for resources. The State Bar also publishes free legal information for consumers.
If you believe your lawyer has done something wrong, you can file a complaint with the State Bar. Complaints may be submitted online or by mail. If you have questions or need assistance in completing the form, call the State Bar’s Attorney Complaint Hotline at 800-843-9053. For more information on reporting a lawyer to the State Bar and handling other problems, read the legal guide If You Have a Problem with an Attorney.
If you have a complaint about a certified or uncertified LRS, you can file a complaint against the service with the State Bar. In order to promote public protection, the State Bar will review your complaint to determine if the LRS has violated Business and Professions Code Section 6155 and State Bar Rules.
For more information on certified lawyer referral services, contact LRS@calbar.ca.gov.
The due date is by March 30, or the next business day if that date falls on a weekend or holiday, each year during the annual license renewal process. The 2025 annual deadline is April 1, 2025. If you miss the deadline, you will be charged a penalty ($103 for active attorneys, $31 for inactive attorneys).
Activities that qualify for general MCLE credit must: (1) relate to legal subjects that are directly relevant to California attorneys, and (2) offer current, significant educational, professional, or practical content with the specific objective of increasing each participant’s professional competency as an attorney. Programs created primarily for nonattorney audiences (for example, general public, clients, or business staff) do not qualify and will not be approved for general MCLE credit. More on Standards for MCLE activity Approval.
IOLTA stands for Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts. Attorneys deposit client funds that they plan to hold briefly, or that are too small to earn interest for the client, into larger shared accounts. Over 73,000 attorneys make deposits in approximately 49,000 IOLTA accounts in California. As of September 2019, IOLTA accounts hold nearly $5 billion. Any interest earned on these accounts is paid by financial institutions to the State Bar, which in turn distributes those funds as grants to qualified nonprofit civil legal organizations throughout the state.
Refer to the State Bar’s IOLTA FAQ page for more information.
No, this is not an error. The DOJ Live Scan process requires the employer section of the form to indicate “The State Bar of California.” As part of DOJ and FBI procedures for sharing any criminal offender record information, the entity receiving this information must be listed under the employer section of the Live Scan form. The Live Scan vendor must enter specific information provided on the Live Scan form into the Live Scan software to ensure any information regarding the person’s criminal offender record information goes to the correct agency.
Please do not modify the prepopulated Employer section of the form. Changes to this section could result in failure to successfully submit your fingerprints to the DOJ.
It costs $32 for the DOJ to run a criminal record check and $17 for the FBI to do so, for a total cost of $49. Vendor processing costs differ by vendor, but range from $5 to $75, with an average cost of $33. A list of California Live Scan locations and costs can be found online (DOJ website).
It depends on your State Bar license status. All licensees on active status, regardless of job title, are required to comply with the fingerprinting rule requirements. Those on inactive status are not. Judges of courts of record whose status is Judge in State Bar records are not required to be fingerprinted unless and until they return to active status.
The criminal record information provided by the DOJ and FBI includes arrest and conviction records. The DOJ does not have a policy to limit criminal record information to only include convictions.
Please submit your information both online and by email, fax or mail. We will review the submission and let you know if you need to correct any deficiencies or provide further documentation. Once the administrative portion of the audit has been completed, you will be notified by mail. Attorneys who attested to compliance but failed to provide sufficient proof may be referred to the Office of Chief Trial Counsel for further investigation and/or disciplinary prosecution.
State Bar investigations and inquiries are, by statute, confidential. The complaint becomes public when disciplinary charges are filed against an attorney in State Bar Court. By law, however, any other pending investigations involving the same lawyer must remain confidential at that point. If it is determined that public protection is seriously at stake in a particular case, the Chief Trial Counsel does have the authority to publicly reveal a pending investigation.
If criminal conduct is suspected, the State Bar may also refer the matter to a law enforcement agency for investigation and potential prosecution.
There is no specific MCLE requirement for reactivation. An attorney will receive a 60-day notice to comply soon after reactivation. However, for attorneys who have been Inactive for two (2) or more years, previously accrued hours may have all been tolled off.
We can accommodate only one passport-type photo within your profile on the State Bar's website, which you can update as needed. However, including a link to your firm's website will give you the opportunity to provide additional information.
The State Bar of California is not an attorney referral service. The online directory is informational and there is no guarantee that the lawyer contacted will agree to take your case. An attorney’s decision of whether or not to take a case is a matter between you and the attorney. The State Bar has no influence over that process.
Some attorneys have chosen to voluntarily provide the following additional information, which is not considered part of the official record and which has not been verified by the State Bar:
In order to voluntarily terminate the LLP's Certificate of Registration with the State Bar, you must submit an original certified copy of the Secretary of State's LLP-4 form (including the blue and white cover sheet with red date stamp), showing that the entity ceases to exist as a limited liability partnership. Pursuant to 9.0 of the State Bar's LLP Rules and Regulations, the termination shall be effective as of the date the LLP is dissolved by the Secretary of State.
Yes. You lose your exemption for the entire compliance period, with the exception of "qualified" pro bono work (see details below).
Full-time employees of the State of California or the United States government are exempt under 2.54(A)(3) and 2.54(A)(4) only if the sole legal work done by the attorneys is within the scope of their employment.
If these attorneys engage in any legal activity outside the scope of their employment, including pro bono work (see below for exception) or legal work for the attorney personally, close friends or immediate family (such as drafting a will for a relative, reviewing a contract for a non-profit association of which the attorney is a member and giving advice respecting it, they are not covered by the exemption of section 2.54(A)(3) and 2.54(A)(4) and must comply with the full MCLE requirements.
If you claimed exempt status for any portion of the compliance period, please complete the MCLE Online Summary Log by selecting “Yes” in the Exempt box and provide a letter from all of your supervisors confirming your titles and dates of employment relative to the MCLE compliance period along with the MCLE Audit Submission Cover Sheet by the deadline. If you also have a proportional requirement you should submit the necessary number of certificates.
You don’t have to attend an admissions ceremony to take the attorney’s oath. You can also appear before a judge, justice or clerk of the court, State Bar of California trustee, military commanding officer, an American consul or anyone authorized to administer oaths. For more information, see this list of people who are qualified to administer the oath.
Yes, see Forms.
The MCLE Compliance Department does not keep track of the education an attorney has completed: Attorneys are responsible for keeping certificates of attendance and a record of self-study activities. These records should be used to tally hours.
Certificates of attendance list the overall amount of credit available for an activity and whether any credit is available for legal ethics, prevention of substance abuse, or elimination of bias in the legal profession. Contact the provider directly regarding lost certificates of attendance or if information about an activity is incomplete.
Special Masters serve without compensation, but for purposes of immunities are considered public employees of the government entity causing the search warrant to be issued.
The issues to be decided in the fee arbitration are limited. The arbitrator will decide the amount of fees and costs, if any, you owe the lawyer or whether you should receive a refund from the lawyer.
If the fee agreement fails to comply with the law, you may "void" or reject it, but the lawyer may still be entitled to receive a reasonable fee. So, as discussed below, you must still be prepared to present a case to the arbitrator with the specific reasons why you believe the fee charged is not reasonable. You may present evidence of what a reasonable fee should be
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