Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Massachusetts

Re: Law school

The bar requires persons to details all legal actions and to explain them; as far as expungment, you need to retain counsel to petition the court.

Re: Law school

Greetings -

In response to your question, a few thoughts - first, I do not believe that the nature of the offense (disturbing the peace) is sufficiently serious to prevent you from being admitted to the bar of any state. Here's what the bar is looking very closely at: financial crimes or crimes which involve some kind of fraud or deceit. As a lawyer you will be handling client funds so the bar wants to be sure that you can be trusted with "other people's money," and also that you're not plagued by chronic financial problems, if you were there is a concern that you might feel pressure to make use of client funds, which is improper in all cases. Regarding crimes that don't involve money, or fraud or deceit, the bar would take notice of any serious crimes, violent crimes, etc., in deciding whether an applicant was lacking in the "moral character" to be admitted to the bar. I just don't think that your crime is serious enough to result in you being denied admission to the bar, whether you have it expunged (erased) from your record or not.

Finally, and importantly, even if you do have the offense expunged from your record, you still may be required to address it on your bar application - if you're going to err, err on the side of full disclosure and being totally forthcoming with the bar ass'n. Ironically, you could be denied admission for being evasive or not forthcoming about an event which, in and of itself, may not be serious enough to keep you out.

A good rule of thumb: be very candid with the bar about everything - I wish you the very best of luck should you decide to attend law school, and I look forward to seeing you in court one of these days.

Regards and Happy New Year -

Len Foy