Lowering the State Bar

I don't know about other, perhaps more reasonable states, but here in Texas you have to apply to sit for the Bar exam at the beginning of your legal education. New law students in the fall have until 10/1 to fill out a 21 page application so that the Bar Assoc. can have 3 years to do their complete background check on you. Now you'd think that since we're in a 4 year evening program we'd get a little more slack than have to try to get this filled out in 6 weeks, but you'd think wrong. Apparently those of us who may be older and have full time jobs take an add'l year to check out.

Items required on this application:
- 10 year living, employment, and criminal history. (and if your immediate supervisor is no longer at one of the companies you worked for, you either have to find him or find someone at that company who will vouch for your honesty).
- information any civil suits you've ever been in
- financial information regarding bankruptcies, child support, and late student loan payments
- 6 references
- a fingerprint card so that the FBI can run your records to find out how truthful you were filling out your criminal history
- a certified copy of your birth certificate
- etc.

Things I'll have to explain on this application:
- why I've been arrested, twice
- why I had outstanding warrants that lead to these arrests, both times
- why I've had other warrants issued, despite the fact that they arose from speeding tickets
- why I was terminated from a job for asking for a raise (I had a competing offer in hand)

Fortunately, I've managed to avoid "big" trouble as it was referred to in my family so I have no DnDs, MiPs, or DWIs to explain. I've also managed to keep from being sued despite my innate ability to tick people off. We've been told not to be afraid of the information we provide unless it indicates a pattern of anything serious. Since mine only indicates a pattern of ignoring speeding tickets that seems to have subsided, I'm not really concerned. I'm more worried about having forgotten a random warrant somewhere and then having to explain why I didn't provide it. Since there's no listyourcrimes.com website where I can go find this kind of information, I guess I'm on my own. Now, if anyone wants to volunteer to say nice things about me, leave a comment and I'll put the requisite payment in the mail. Just kidding . . . really. Stop it, I'm being serious here, sort of!