Tag Archive for: Character and Fitness hearings before Florida Bar

IMPORTANT CHANGES to How to Submit Evidence to the Florida Board of Bar Examiners

Recent changes have taken effect as to what weight the Florida Board of Bar Examiners will give to community service submitted as evidence in Character and Fitness Hearings before the Board. A recent Florida Supreme Court case now requires that the time logs be submitted and signed off on with detailed notes of what was done for the hours spent. Historically one could get a “thank you” letter from a supervisor at an organization that would total up the hours but now the Board wants to see the details of each day, what was done, and have the supervisor sign off on it regularly.

Bar Hearing Lawyer Rated 10/10 AVVO

All character and fitness hearings before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners whether they are Investigate Hearings, Formal Hearings, or Rehabilitative Hearings the burden is always on the Applicant to prove that he or she possesses the requested character and fitness to practice law in the state of Florida. If one finds themselves before this investigative tribunal obviously something happened in your past that is being called into question. The Board has to weigh the good character evidence against the bad character evidence and there are few better ways to outweigh bad evidence than by loading up on community service hours.

One may wonder what kind of community service the Board of Bar Examiners deems relevant.  anything not career advancing such as volunteering at the Public Defender’s office or a legal internship that’s unpaid would carry no weight since it is career advancing and not true community service. The only legal related community service that could be used to mitigate the bad character evidence is the Guardian Ad Litem Program. This is the only legal related program that the Florida Supreme Court has given credit to Applicants to the Florida Bar as mitigating evidence.

If you are facing a hearing and know that you have some bad character evidence to overcome I would recommend doing community service to overcome it but document it in such a way that each activity is accounted for and signed off on a regular or semi regular basis or you run the risk of the Board of Bar Examiners giving it no weight at all.

Always consider hiring an experience Florida Bar Defense Lawyer to be your advocate at the hearing and make sure that you comply with all evidentiary rules and engage in meaningful discovery before the hearing so there are no surprises that you didn’t prepare for the day of. Lars Soreide, Esq., has appeared before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners in Character and Fitness hearings hundreds of times on behalf of Applicants and travels to each hearing location of the Board so geography is not a concern. Call 888-760-6552 for a free consultation with a Florida Board of Bar Examiners Defense Attorney today to make sure you are prepared for your character and fitness hearing.

Florida Bar Hearing Dates Set for May and July

The Florida Board of Bar Examiners has set hearings dates for bar applicants with investigative and formal hearings on May 10 -12, 2018, in Coral Gables, Florida, and July 13 -14, 2018, in Jacksonville, Florida.
If contacted by the Florida Board of Bar Examiners requesting an investigative or formal bar hearing, every Applicant should ask themselves if they are ready. There is a natural inclination to just want to get it over with, but if the Board of Bar Examiners files specifications and you now are facing a formal hearing you could be looking at oftentimes an 8 month to a year delay to your file. Soreide Law Group is representing Applicants in the upcoming Coral Gables and Jacksonville hearings before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners.
The Board does allow the 15 day rule to be waived to submit your evidence in advance if they notice you are within the 15 day window. In this case, you can bring your exhibits with you to the hearing itself. Make sure you bring with you 5 copies of anything you intend to submit, which will be one copy for each Board member, one for the record, and one for you. If you are not sure if you are ready for your Florida Board of Bar Examiners Hearing on short notice, then you should wait. Only if you are fully prepared and have done all of the work in advance should you jump at the opportunity to rush into an earlier hearing. If you are not sure you should contact an attorney for a consultation.
Soreide Law Group has represented hundreds of Applicants before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners and can help you navigate the tough decision of, “Am I ready?” No two hearings are the same and each hearing requires evidence and testimony which is tailored to your specific fact set. Many of these items can be obtained quickly so it will vary case by case if an earlier hearing before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners is right for you. Soreide Law Group travels to every hearing location in Florida to represent Applicants. We are conveniently based in Pompano Beach, Florida.
If you have an investigative hearing or a formal hearing before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners call Soreide Law Group and speak to an experienced license defense attorney at no cost to you, at (888) 760-6552.

Character and Fitness are Significant When Applying to The Florida Bar

Honesty is always the best policy when applying to the Bar.  Character and fitness play a significant roll in being admitted to the Florida Bar.

In order to become a fully licensed member of Florida’s Bar, law school graduates must have a clear character and fitness inquiry.  This step is often underestimated, but can make all the difference in whether or not a graduate will be admitted.  Bar applicants must possess good character and show clear and convincing evidence that they possess the requisite degree of good character to sit for the bar exam and be admitted to the Florida Bar.

During the process of admittance, applicants fill out a lengthy questionnaire with personal information about their past such as job losses, arrests, academic misconduct, traffic tickets, bankruptcies, and in some cases mental health history, to name a few.  Even if the applicant might consider something “minor,” it could become a major issue in the admission process.  It is most important to disclose all information asked, and honestly.

In some jurisdictions, applicants with a criminal history, academic misconduct or financial issues, may not be allowed to take the bar exam.  In other cases, they may be able to sit for the bar but then must attend a hearing concerning their fitness.

If you’ve been called before the Florida Bar for an Investigative or Formal Hearing, Soreide Law Group will represent you at the hearing and help you navigate through the process.  It can be very daunting and your future is on the line.

Soreide Law Group represents those individuals seeking admittance to the Florida Bar, and existing lawyers, for both Investigative Hearings and Formal Hearings in front of the Florida Bar.

Call for a no-cost consultation with an experienced Florida Bar Defense Attorney if you have an upcoming Investigative or Formal Hearing with the Florida Bar. We travel to all locations throughout Florida to appear before the Board of Bar Examiners. Call Soreide Law Group at:  888-760-6552.

Social media Florida Board of Bar Examiners

Character Witnesses in Florida Bar Hearings

Character witnesses are sometimes called to testify at character and fitness hearings before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners. At the investigative level it is far less common to call a live witness. More often than not character testimony is offered only in the form of letter support or affidavit at the investigative level. As an attorney that represents Applicants at these hearings I would only recommend calling a live witness if one is needed to refute compelling bad character evidence against an Applicant. At meetings with the Board they have to see multiple Applicants in a day and don’t want to get bogged down with multiple live character witnesses and have the right to refuse their testimony. That is why at the Investigative hearing level it is best to just offer the letter support instead of the live person.

At Formal Hearings, assuming the Board advanced you to the next level and didn’t clear you at the investigative hearing, I feel it is imperative to call live character witnesses. At the formal hearing it is almost expected that you will be able to offer some compelling character testimony from someone that may influence the Board. A friend or family member is not compelling to the Board since they would recommend you no matter what your past looks like. Try to focus on past employers or former co-workers that are Florida Bar members when deciding who to offer to the Board as your witness. Also think quality over quantity. One compelling authority the Board would listen too is better than three of your buddies you graduated law school from.

If you have an investigative character and fitness hearing or a formal character and fitness hearing before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners call an attorney at (888) 760-6552 for a free consultation.

Florida Bar Hearing

How a Florida Bar Applicant can conduct a Proper Background Check

When applying to the Florida Bar the number one reason that Applicants find themselves the subject of an investigative or formal hearing is due to “lack of candor”. In most instances this can be totally avoided by conducting a thorough background check on yourself. If something is left off your Florida Bar Applicantion the examiners may suspect that it was an intentional act of deceit and you were concealing bad facts that you didn’t want them to learn. Sometime it is an innocent mistake such as leaving off a summer job that you may have forgotten about from 6 years ago but after being contacted by the Florida Board of Bar Examiners your former employer may not have had very nice things to say about you which would lead the Board to think it was a deliberate act. Here are three things every Florida Bar Applicant must do before applying.

  • Pull your credit from at least three different credit reporting agencies. You will see what you had that fell into collections and you may not even know it. Better you explain the error to the Board of Bar Examiners than have them find out and contact you about it. Also someone could have stolen your credit and destroyed it so it’s best to find this out on your own to do damage control.
  • Get your employment history through the social security administration’s website. If there was ever a withholding they are aware of the job. They won’t have any info on unpaid internships but this is a good starting point to help you piece together your work timeline.
  • Pay for a background check. Background checks are not even expensive and are done through services such as lexis-nexis accurint. This data base searches history for criminal, civil, foreclosure, bankruptcies, prior address history, corporate affiliations, among other areas the bar is concerned with. Our firm offers this at only $99 and will even credit the money back to you should you retain Soreide Law Group to represent you at any investigative or formal hearing. It is a must with any background check. It doesn’t negate items 1 & 2 because you have to be a debt collection firm to be able to pull bar applicants credit, those are free items anyone can do now.

When applying to the Florida Bar treat this like your first case. Character and Fitness is a critical decision making factor on if you will be admitted to the Florida Bar and some would say even more difficult than passing the Florida Bar Exam. If you have any questions on the above feel free to contact Lars Soreide, Esq., at (954) 760-6552.  We offer a free consultation and travel to each hearing location of the Board of Bar Examiners.

Florida Bar Hearing Defense Attorney’s Tip of the Month for April 2014

If you have a history of drug or alcohol abuse it is important to consider the benefits of enrolling in Florida Lawyers Assistance before you appear in front of the Board of Bar Examiners for an Investigative Hearing. The Florida Bar is widely known as the toughest in the country when it comes to character and fitness evaluations. However, the Bar does not view a dependency problem as a character flaw, but rather as a treatable disease.
Many Applicants may be concerned that enrolling in Florida Lawyers Assistance of “FLA” would be evidence of bad character, while the exact opposite is true. The Board of Bar Examiners is not comprised of medical professionals who can assess the nature of any dependency disorder,  so they must rely upon FLA to do so for them. If enrolled in FLA the enrollee will have to abstain from all drugs (non prescribed) and alcohol and be subjected to random screening. This gives the Board the level of comfort they need to obtain to be able to conditionally admit you for a finite term with permanent admission to follow a successful term at FLA.
If enrolling make sure to enroll far enough out that you can have a meaningful interaction with FLA such as successfully completing several drug screens and obtaining a sponsor.  If however you feel that you do not have a dependency problem but your bar application may evidence otherwise, it is possible as an alternative to have a Florida Lawyers Assistance approved doctor conduct a chemical dependency evaluation and produce a report that may be offered at your investigative or formal hearing as evidence of no chemical dependency problem.
For more information or questions concerning this post you can contact Lars Soreide, Esq., at (954) 760-6552. Defending Florida Bar Applicants throughout Florida.

Last Minute Check List before Appearing Before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners for an Investigative Hearing

Character and fitness hearings before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners are becoming increasingly common. No two hearings are the same, however the Board is going to weigh the new or further evidence you present at the investigative hearing with the elements listed in Florida Bar Admission Rule 3-12 “Determination of Present Character” during all hearings. If you are unrepresented, and the trend over the last several years is to hire representation for this hearing, carefully examine and consider the rules before appearing.

3-12 Determination of Present Character. The board must determine whether the applicant or registrant has provided satisfactory evidence of good moral character. The following factors, among others, will be considered in assigning weight and significance to prior conduct:
(a) age at the time of the conduct;
(b) recency of the conduct;
(c) reliability of the information concerning the conduct;
(d) seriousness of the conduct;
(e) factors underlying the conduct;
(f) cumulative effect of the conduct or information;
(g) evidence of rehabilitation;
(h) positive social contributions since the conduct;
(i) candor in the admissions process; and,
(j) materiality of any omissions or misrepresentations.
Upon reading these elements what documents can you show the Board that will highlight each and every element under 3-12.  Remember it is a weighing test so the Board is already aware of the bad conduct it is now your responsibility to mitigate or outweigh the bad conduct with good conduct as outlined by 3-12.
For a free consultation regarding your upcoming investigative, formal or rehabilitative hearing before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners call (888) 760-6552 to speak to a Florida Bar Defense Lawyer now.