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.