Florida Board of Bar Examiners Character & Fitness Attorney
Client Focused, Results Driven.
Character & Fitness Attorney for Florida Board of Bar Examiners Matters
Welcome to Florida Bar Hearings
Admission to The Florida Bar requires more than just graduating from law school and passing the Bar exam. Passing the character and fitness review is the final piece of the equation. As an Administrative Attorney in Winter Garden Fl, I’ve helped hundreds of Florida Bar applicants since 2008 overcome application omissions and oversights, on topics covering financial hardships, employment problems, academic discipline, substance abuse challenges, criminal convictions, and more.
Asking the right questions, and listening carefully, helps me recognize where clients are in the admissions process, and where they want to be.
I help them get there. And when my applicants gain confidence with the Florida Bar admissions process, another of my goals as a Florida Board of Bar Examiners hearing and admissions attorney is met.
Take time to work on your applications. It could dramatically increase the odds of admission. I provide solid guidance to help you reach your goals, whether you’ve already been issued a Notice to Appear for Investigative Hearing, or you’re just dreaming of going to law school.
Real Clients, Real Testimonials
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a Character & Fitness investigation entail?
Determining good moral character by obtaining and reviewing documents sourced from credit agencies, court records, tax records, schools the applicant attended, applicant’s job history including any terminations/discipline, DMV abstracts, and listed references, to name just a few.
What can affect the character and fitness portion of my application?
Misconduct involving dishonesty is a key concern, so student conduct code accusations and violations, especially those involving academic integrity or plagiarism, are carefully investigated. The Board also takes a look at employment misconduct and terminations, especially instances involving theft, misrepresentations and/or a pattern of terminations for cause. Also important are criminal charges and dispositions, failure to comply with court orders, financial difficulties including collections and payments returned for insufficient funds, military discipline or discharge, and multiple traffic violations.
What issues commonly trigger concern in a Character & Fitness review?
Crimes of integrity (theft, misrepresentation), DUI, any felony charges, misconduct-based job accusations and/or terminations, writing bad checks or overdrawing a bank account, whether or not it leads to bankruptcy), and cheating in undergrad and law school are issues that raise red flags.
How can a Character & Fitness attorney assist during investigative hearings?
Well in advance of hearing, the attorney helps the applicant secure documents necessary for adequate hearing preparation. The attorney reviews the applicant’s file and helps the applicant bring information related to the C&F investigation into alignment with information in Bar and law school applications. The attorney drafts potential hearing questions to review with an applicant and explains what the applicant can expect during the hearing. The attorney appears with the applicant at hearing in person or via Zoom to help ensure that there is no misinformation or misunderstandings of facts between the panel and the applicant being questioned.
How should I disclose past misconduct?
Before submitting any applications – Bar or law school – obtain and read complete copies of student records, police reports, credit reports, etc. then use them to draft honest and very detailed responses explaining all sides. Applicants should never rely on memory, even if they believe they remember every detail. Applicants can get blind-sided when they believe a professor speaking with them about plagiarism didn’t go beyond an informal chat but the Board starts asking questions about non-disclosure of an academic integrity incident. It’s worth the time and effort to get documents in hand before submitting your applications. If application explanations don’t align with the information secured by the Board during its investigation, the applicant will be asked to explain why. This creates a candor issue when it could have been avoided with just a little bit of effort. Using documents secured well ahead of a deadline to submit the application can help avoid future candor problems.
What happens if I'm called for an investigative hearing?
Just because you’re called in doesn’t automatically mean that you will not be cleared or admitted. Contact an attorney who is experienced in character and fitness hearings before the FBBE, talk about the issues in your notice to appear, and determine next steps, including selection of a hearing date that maximizes effective preparation.
Can mistakes in the past still allow me to get admitted?
The Board recommends or denies admission based on an applicant’s current character and fitness. The way applicants explain past mistakes in their Bar and law school applications shows the Board their current character and fitness, in other words, their current state of mind when it comes to being honest. Disclosing circumstances that led to past mistakes in an honest and detailed way helps to show the FBBE you have a good grasp on candor at the time you completed your applications. Honesty is an essential requirement in practicing attorneys, so Florida Bar candidates should display that quality. As traumatic or embarrassing as it can be to disclose, complete honesty can go a long way toward mitigating old mistakes.
How long does the investigation/hearing process take?
An applicant with multiple issues will have to wait longer for the Florida Board of Bar Examiners to complete its investigation than one who does not. Applicants who are older tend to have more life experiences that require looking into and could cause delayed processing. Another factor is the response time for others to reply to the Board’s inquiries, and applicants can help by encouraging their references to reply as soon as possible when they receive a letter from the FBBE.
What qualities are the Board looking for?
The quality that causes people to do the right thing even when nobody is looking is right up there in what the Board seeks in Bar candidates. A life with zero regrets is rare, so the next best thing is to be completely forthright, even when you’d rather not. This demonstrates that you currently have an understanding of the integrity it takes to be an upstanding member of the Florida Bar. Rule 3-10 of the Rules of the Florida Supreme Court Relating to Admissions in the FBBE portal provides more details about what the Board seeks in a Bar applicant, and Rule 3-11 lists descriptions of disqualifying conduct.
What if my application is delayed or denied?
If your application has been actively processing for more than six months, an applicant can (1) check to see if there are any outstanding requests and promptly address them and (2) if not, write to the FBBE through the Correspondence section of their portal and politely ask for a status update. A denial of admission has numerous ramifications best discussed with an attorney experienced in Florida Bar admissions.