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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. You are eligible whether you are working with or without pay.
An attorney who is licensed to practice law in one or more U.S. jurisdictions other than California, relocates to California to work at a qualifying legal services provider and only on behalf of its clients, works under the supervision of an attorney employed by that provider, and is registered by the State Bar of California. See General Information FAQs for additional information.
Legal services attorneys and in-house counsel must register with the State Bar and file an Application for Determination of Moral Character. Litigation and non-litigation attorneys eligible under rules 9.47 and 9.48 are not required to register. MJP registration applications are available online. The moral character application is available, but must be submitted with the MJP application, not separately.
No. (Rule 9.47 & 9.48)
Nov. 15, 2004.
The only time that a lattorney (or licensee) is not subject to the MCLE requirement is during the time s/he is officially on Inactive status. If the attorney remains an Active attorney, he/she is subject to the MCLE requirement, regardless of whether the attorney is practicing law. See Inactive Status for more information.
If an attorney is Inactive for a portion of the compliance period, the MCLE education requirement is pro-rated, based on the number of months during the compliance period that s/he is subject to. (See Requirements)
When the DOJ/FBI rejects an individual’s fingerprints, the individual must be re-fingerprinted by the same Live Scan vendor to avoid paying another processing fee. The Live Scan vendor must submit the subsequent set of fingerprints as a re-submittal using the Original Applicant Tracking Identifier (OATI). The OATI refers to the ATI number that is associated with the fingerprints that were previously rejected. If the Live Scan vendor does not enter the OATI correctly or fails to enter the OATI when submitting the subsequent set of fingerprints, the DOJ/FBI will not associate the subsequent set of fingerprints as a re-submittal. The OATI indicates to the DOJ/FBI there were a previous set of fingerprints submitted through the Live Scan process and rejected. Attorneys should contact the State Bar when a Live Scan vendor fails to re-submit the fingerprints correctly and multiple rejections occur.
Yes, attorneys are allowed to modify the Live Scan form to include their employer’s agency billing number on the billing number line. Attorney must confirm that their agency has an active account with the DOJ and the Live Scan vendor to pay fingerprinting fees.
The DOJ procedures recommend entering a home address when completing the California DOJ Live Scan form. However, some Live Scan vendors may accept a non- California home address. The State Bar does not receive or track any information provided to the Live Scan vendor. You are not required to provide the same address reported to the State Bar.
No, the DOJ will not accept ink fingerprint cards from an individual who resides in or has a California address.
No. The DOJ will retain fingerprints only for the purpose of notifying the State Bar of subsequent criminal offense information.
California attorneys who are certified as specialists have taken and passed a written examination in their specialty field, demonstrated a high level of experience in the specialty field, fulfilled ongoing education requirements and been favorably evaluated by other attorneys and judges familiar with their work.
Only these attorneys can identify themselves as certified specialists in California because they are the only attorneys who are certified either by the California Board of Legal Specialization or by an organization whose certification program has been accredited by the State Bar. Such an organization must have requirements for certification that are at least equal to those of the State Bar's program.
If you took the February bar exam, your results will be mailed to you in mid-May. If you took the July bar exam, your results will be mailed to you in mid-November. You can also check to see if your name is on the pass list available on the State Bar of California website. You will need your applicant and file numbers to log in and see your results. It will show only whether your name is on the pass list.
An attorney's compliance group never changes, even if a last name is changed. Attorneys always remain in the compliance group to which they originally were assigned. See Compliance Groups for more information.
Unless you opt out of this feature, you will automatically come up in randomized search results when the search criteria match. So, if the search criteria are limited to geography, you will still be included (as long as you are on Active status).
The display of your search result will vary depending upon the type of search you request. For example:
The State Bar certifies professional law partnerships to allow attorneys to limit their vicarious liability for the acts tortious or otherwise, of their partners and employees.
LLP information.
If you have completed all the requirements, you will get an admission packet in the mail that includes your result letter and information about how to complete your membership enrollment card. It includes a membership enrollment card (also called an “oath” card) that must be filled out and signed by an individual authorized to administer oaths. Many applicants attend the admission ceremonies coordinated by the State Bar, but you do not need to attend one of those in order to take the oath. A list of admission ceremony locations is included in the bulletin for successful applicants, which will be mailed to successful applicants.
After you have forwarded the completed membership enrollment card, which has the oath on the back, to the State Bar’s Membership Records office, you are eligible to start practicing law.
No. If you reside in California you will not be eligible for OSAAC.
Providers are not required to give a certificate of attendance for approved self-study education, but they are required to specify the total amount of credit hours available and the number of those total hours allocated to the special requirement areas.
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