tesseract314
Junior Member
What is the name of your state? IL (incident happened in WI)
An individual has one misdemeanor conviction (u-level, related to picking up a prescription), and pending charge for another misdemeanor (retail theft--<$20). These two things happened within 90 days of one another. The first charge received probation (which was never violated oddly enough, even though the incident happened in the same county), which was transferred to IL and passed with flying colors. The individual had no criminal history before or after these incidents. It is several years later, they have been working for years now at a school as a high-level employee assisting students w/attaining an education, and going to school full time as well, getting a near 4.0 GPA. They work 50+ hours per week and go to school full time. They have truly gotten better (this was all tied in to a VERY deceptive medicine called AMBIEN which was legitimately prescribed and had a STRANGE affect on their behavior at night and in the early morning), and have been a REAL contributing member of society ever since. They are now trying to resolve the pending charge and expunge the conviction (if both were ultimately convictions, they would both be eligible for expungement, as this person was under 21 when both incidents occurred).
The question is, since they are about to graduate and may be getting into one of the best law schools in the country, is it even possible to go? Will they spend 3 years working their butt off only to find that they are not allowed to take the IL bar? Even if the convictions are expunged, I heard that they have to be disclosed to the bar, and it is practically impossible to be allowed to get a license to practice/take the bar if you have a criminal conviction--especially an "ethical" conviction related to a prescription or theft (though what crime isn't an ethical problem?)--even if they are both misdemeanors. Is it worth it? No matter how much promise this person might have, how much better they have gotten and how sorry they are for the whole 4 month period, ther is no point in putting all of the effort in to a $150,000 legal education if they won't even be allowed to practice law, or get a job at a respectable law firm after graduation.
Thanks
An individual has one misdemeanor conviction (u-level, related to picking up a prescription), and pending charge for another misdemeanor (retail theft--<$20). These two things happened within 90 days of one another. The first charge received probation (which was never violated oddly enough, even though the incident happened in the same county), which was transferred to IL and passed with flying colors. The individual had no criminal history before or after these incidents. It is several years later, they have been working for years now at a school as a high-level employee assisting students w/attaining an education, and going to school full time as well, getting a near 4.0 GPA. They work 50+ hours per week and go to school full time. They have truly gotten better (this was all tied in to a VERY deceptive medicine called AMBIEN which was legitimately prescribed and had a STRANGE affect on their behavior at night and in the early morning), and have been a REAL contributing member of society ever since. They are now trying to resolve the pending charge and expunge the conviction (if both were ultimately convictions, they would both be eligible for expungement, as this person was under 21 when both incidents occurred).
The question is, since they are about to graduate and may be getting into one of the best law schools in the country, is it even possible to go? Will they spend 3 years working their butt off only to find that they are not allowed to take the IL bar? Even if the convictions are expunged, I heard that they have to be disclosed to the bar, and it is practically impossible to be allowed to get a license to practice/take the bar if you have a criminal conviction--especially an "ethical" conviction related to a prescription or theft (though what crime isn't an ethical problem?)--even if they are both misdemeanors. Is it worth it? No matter how much promise this person might have, how much better they have gotten and how sorry they are for the whole 4 month period, ther is no point in putting all of the effort in to a $150,000 legal education if they won't even be allowed to practice law, or get a job at a respectable law firm after graduation.
Thanks
