Character & Fitness

[goBruins]

So I have been submitting law schools and honestly not thinking twice about answering 'no' to all the character and fitness questions because I have never had a disciplinary action nor committed (I thought) a crime. Then today I reach Cornell's C&F question:

"Have you ever, either as an adult or a juvenile, been cited, ticketed, arrested, taken into custody, charged with, indicted, convicted or tried for, or pleaded guilty to, the commission of any felony or misdemeanor or the violation of any law, or been the subject of any juvenile delinquency or youthful offender proceeding? Traffic violations that occurred more than ten years before the filing of this application need not be reported, with the exception of alcohol or drug-related traffic violations, which must be reported in all cases irrespective of when they occurred. Do not report parking violations."

I think it was the 'cited... the violation of any law' that just suddenly made me realize that I have gotten a couple traffic tickets in the past. The most recent one was in 2018, I got an infraction that is still on my driving record. So obviously I answer 'yes' to this question and explain the situation in the addendum. I still have that ticket so it is quite easy for me to write about the situation.

However, I also remember getting a ticket in maybe 2016 for failure to complete stop at a red light. I went to traffic school and got the ticket cleared from my record. I honestly have no memory of any information beyond that, and because it was cleared I am unable to find any account of it through the DMV. Do I report this? The physical ticket is long gone by now. I have no idea what the actual charge was, nor where I should go to look for anything related to this information. My mom does not even remember this happening haha. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[goBruins]

This is not really as relevant, but I also wanted to add that, in Cornell's C&F addendum tab:

"Provide a statement regarding the question: Have you ever, either as an adult or a juvenile, been cited, arrested, taken into custody, charged with, indicted, convicted or tried for, or pleaded guilty to the commission of any felony or misdemeanor or the violation of any law, except minor parking or traffic violations, or been the subject of any juvenile delinquency or youthful offender proceeding?"

Notice the wording here is actually different to the original question. 'except minor parking or traffic violations'. This caused me to question submitting anything at all. I imagine that Cornell changed the C&F question recently and forgot to update the addendum tab? Just another annoying detail adding to my neurosis.

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Bruin,

The usual rule is that if you are uncertain, then you should disclose. So for Cornell's original language you'd mention the several incidents and with the 2016 one simply state that "around 2016" or use similar language to that effect. then describe it as you recall it, failure to stop. If you can't find it, that's the best you can do. They don't care that you have the exact date, just that you report things that occurred. I'd disclose despite the addendum language, too, just to be safe.

Good news to all of this is that no one cares at all about traffic-related incidents like the ones you describe. It's literally "report and forget" for minor stuff.

Thanks!

[goBruins]

Thank you Dave! This was very helpful and reassuring.