Law School admissions officials are often asked “can you become a lawyer if you have a DUI?” The fact is, there is a small barrier to law school with a DUI.
The reason the question comes up in regard to law school and not other graduate programs is that law students will presumably apply for admission to the bar of at least one state. And, the board of legal examiners requires a certificate of good moral standing for licensure.
As part of their background check, the state bar association will do a thorough background check. This will include pulling your criminal record, credit record, and more. You’ll even have to list every address at which you have lived any time in your life.
The bar will be looking specifically for indications of “moral turpitude.” In an attempt to protect the profession, they will exclude anyone who might steel client’s money or otherwise reflect badly on the profession.
Because law schools know that you will eventually have to go through this scrutiny, they try to see if you’ll be disqualified before they accept you. They don’t want to invest their time and your money in an education that you can’t use.
The law school will ask you whether you have ever been arrested for any crime. You’ll need to list all arrests and convictions, even if they happened when you were a juvenile, and even if they were expunged.
Having said all of that, will a DUI disqualify you from going to law school? Not in and of itself. If your record shows that you are an otherwise upstanding person of moral character, you can still be admitted to law school. However, multiple arrests or a single arrest with great bodily harm may put your application into doubt.
Be upfront with the law schools you apply to about your record. Don’t assume you can hide anything. Even if the law school does not find out about your DUI, the bar will. And, they will also find out that you lied to the law school which further puts your moral character in doubt.
You can go to law school after a DUI, but you will need to go the extra mile to show that you have the character it takes to be admitted to the bar.
By: J. T. Lawrence
Posts Tagged ‘Education’
Divorce and Family Law Case Update
November 20th, 2009Cost of Living Increase
Evidence presented to the trial court indicated that the cost of supporting a child had substantially increased and that defendant’s income had substantially increased so as to enable him to pay this additional amount; in light of this evidence it was error for the trial court not to order the defendant to pay modified amount plaintiff sought for child support.
Death of Obligor Subsection (c) of this section provides that the obligation to support, unless otherwise agreed in writing or provided in the judgment, will survive the death of the parent obliged to provide child support and seeks to protect the dependent child of divorced parents from loss of support through disinheritance, a loss from which a child of non-divorced parents is indirectly insulated.
An order under 750 ILCS 5/513 for education and maintenance of a child, whether of minor or majority age, is intended to be included within subsection (c) the same as a support order and is not terminated by the death of a parent obligated to pay for these expenses. An order of support for a non-minor child, although only to be granted under special circumstances under 750 ILCS 5/513 is the same as any other order of support and does not terminate upon the death of the parent obligated to pay the support unless otherwise agreed in writing or expressly provided in the judgment. Subsection (c) authorize modification of child support, when a parent obligated to pay support dies, “to the extent just and appropriate in the circumstances”; however, no modification of a support order is warranted where the decedent has adequately provided for the children.
No modification of a support order is warranted where the person obligated to pay support has adequately provided for the children in a testamentary device. Subsection (c) of this section seeks to protect the dependent child of divorced parents from loss of support through disinheritance, a loss from which a child of nondivorced parents is indirectly insulated; a divorced parent is still free the disinherit a child of his divorced marriage, subject only to the limited obligation of support. Since an original decree made no provision for support of the minor children by the father, the former wife’s petition filed after the father’s death constituted in effect an effort to enforce a claim against plaintiff’s estate for child support unrelated to the divorce decree, and, since the death of the plaintiff rendered it impossible for the trial court to enter any personal decree against him, there could be no basis for granting relief provided by an amended decree under former Ill.Rev.Stat., ch. 40, para. 19.
Delayed modification
Where at the time the petition for modification was filed, the defendant was receiving his full salary, he had incurred additional expenses because of a heart attack, but he had also recently received an inheritance, the trial court properly found that reduction of his alimony and support payments was not justified at the time of the filing of the petition, but that a modification was justified effective six months later.
Determination
Support should be determined by accommodating the needs of the children with the available means of the parties.
By: David Siegel
