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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.
Contact the LAP office for details about the income eligibility requirements and the application process. Financial assistance can cover up to one year of LAP group fees and one year of lab testing fees.
For more information, see the LAP Growth Grant Criteria.
There is no set time for Support LAP. It is completely voluntary. Participants can enroll, withdraw, and re-enroll whenever they want to.
After submitting your completed membership enrollment card, allow one to two weeks for delivery, then check Attorney Search to confirm your enrollment and find your bar number. If you do not see your name on the State Bar website after two weeks from the date you submitted the card, call 888-800-3400 or email AttorneyRegulation@calbar.ca.gov.
No. Pursuant to rule 9.46 of the California Rules of Court and Title 3 Division 3 Chapter 1 Article 3 of the Rules of the State Bar, you must reside in California. As defined in rule 3.370(D), this means that you must live or be located in California on more than a temporary or transient basis.
No. Entry into the Pathway PLP is only permitted for those who scored between 1390 and 1439 on a bar exam from July 2015 through February 2020. Program participants do not need to retake a bar exam if they complete 300 hours of supervised legal practice in the Pathway PLP and fulfill all other requirements of the rule.
Please review the Moral Character Statement.
The moral character application requires disclosure of all civil cases in which you were a party, including divorces, dissolutions, and class action cases in which you were a named plaintiff or defendant. You are not required to disclose class action lawsuits in which you were a member of the class, but not a named party.
Contact the citing or arresting agency to obtain a copy of a law enforcement report and contact the court where the related proceedings were held to obtain a copy of the charging document, court docket, and judgment (please see Form 2 for the complete list of required documents). You must contact each agency to determine whether records may be requested or obtained online, in person, or through the mail. The identity of the citing or arresting agency sometimes may be found in related court documents. An attorney who represented you, or the prosecutor’s office, such as the District Attorney or City Attorney, may be able to assist in identifying the court in which certain proceedings were held.
A nonjudicial punishment, court-martial, resignation in lieu of court-martial, administrative discharge, or a discharge that is not “honorable” may be relevant to a moral character determination, but it does not automatically disqualify an applicant from receiving a positive moral character determination. The specific circumstances of the incident will be considered.
No; however, if you obtain new employment while your moral character application is pending or after you have received a positive moral character determination, but before you take the attorney’s oath, you must provide the new employment information to the State Bar within 30 days.
You must disclose all residences for the past three years, regardless of how long you resided at the location.
Post the completed Live Scan Form to your moral character case feed. Do not submit the Live Scan Form as a General Request or as a Fingerprint Request, or there may be a delay in processing.
You must fulfill the pre-legal education requirements that apply to students who attend law school. This includes at least two years of college work or equivalent intellectual achievement by attaining a score of 50 or higher on specified College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) examinations, as detailed on the College Equivalency Education webpage.
Your pre-legal and any completed legal education will be evaluated upon submission of your LOS application. You must register with the Office of Admissions, and the Registration Application must be approved before you can submit an LOS application. When submitting your Application for the Law Office Study Program, you must submit your official, sealed undergraduate transcripts, CLEP scores, or a course-by-course evaluation of your foreign study from an approved credential evaluation agency if you have foreign undergraduate study. All official, sealed legal education transcripts must also be submitted before your participation in the LOS Program can be approved.
All sealed official transcripts must be mailed to the Los Angeles Office of Admissions. Electronic transcripts are not acceptable.
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