What questions about criminal history are appropriate to ask bar applicants?
The ABA House of Delegates at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Phoenix on Monday overwhelmingly passed a resolution urging bar admissions authorities to limit the scope of inquiries into an applicant’s criminal record. (Image from Shutterstock)
The ABA House of Delegates at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Phoenix on Monday overwhelmingly passed a resolution urging bar admissions authorities to limit the scope of inquiries into an applicant’s criminal record.
Bar admissions authorities, according to the resolution, should develop policies and practices to focus inquiries into bar applicants’ criminal records to those that reflect a propensity to engage in fraud, deceit, dishonesty or misrepresentation in the future delivery of legal services, along with other crimes that could “adversely impact the applicant’s delivery of legal services.”
Resolution 609 also urges state, territorial and tribal bar admissions authorities to stop examinations into an applicant’s juvenile, sealed or expunged criminal matters, along with wrongful convictions and convictions vacated on appeal.
New bar applicants are required to submit an application before taking the bar exam. This application usually includes a character and fitness questionnaire that assesses whether an applicant can perform the duties of a lawyer.
The goal of Resolution 609 is to narrowly tailor the bar admission process to only include questions related to a person’s fitness to practice law, according to the report accompanying the resolution.
The character and fitness process “should be about honesty and about competency, not about retribution, punishment or exclusion from our profession,” said Laurence Pulgram of California, a delegate from the ABA Litigation Section.
Follow along with the ABA Journal’s coverage of the 2025 ABA Midyear Meeting here.
Dieter Tejada, who earned a JD from the Vanderbilt University Law School, also spoke on behalf of the resolution. Tejada was wrongfully convicted of assault in 2009 in Fairfield County, Connecticut, superior court. In September 2023, the Connecticut Board of Pardons and Paroles granted Tejada a “full, complete, absolute and unconditional pardon” based on innocence, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. Tejada said his criminal record had interfered with his ability to pass the character and fitness portion of the bar.
“My experience with injustice is why I became a lawyer,” said Tejada, president of the National Justice Impact Bar Association. He said he was “excited to say that for the first time in seven years,” he was “back on track to becoming a licensed attorney.”
“I’m not here on my own behalf,” he said, urging the House of Delegates to pass the resolution. He said he was “here on behalf of others. My story is not unique, unfortunately.”
The report accompanying the resolution noted that questions pertaining to a person’s criminal history can create “unnecessary hurdles that prove especially challenging for members of marginalized groups and exacerbate the lack of diversity in the profession.”
“Research has shown that overbroad questions often deter qualified applicants from joining the legal profession,” according to the report.
The resolution also urges federal, state, territorial and tribal bar admissions authorities to limit the scope of their inquiry into an applicant’s criminal history to the “length of time that reflects an applicant’s present character and fitness” relevant to practicing law.
Resolution 609 was sponsored by the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession and the Civil Rights and Social Justice Section.
Clarification
Updated Feb. 10 to clarify details about Tejada’s conviction and exoneration.
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