BACKGROUND checks and the BAR

[trythis]

A few questions...

What are they looking at on the background checks?  They mention financial information on some, and request that a release be signed so they can access any such info.   Does this cover credit cards, etc?

Also, do they request info from ISPs and review web-activitiy, surfing, even from 5 years ago or so?

[SBTB-Loser]

Financial info means credit reports and records on how you paid your debts.  So yes it does cover credit cards, such as when and if you paid them.  Some also ask if you have ever defaulted on a student loan or had a credit card revoked.  Obviously, they are looking for whether you are financially responsible, but I suspect that it's not as rigorous as these boards sometimes make it sound: lots of young people have crummy credit and credit problems.  As long as you are handling your debt responsibly when you are applying and do not have any charged off or defaulted debts that you are simply ignoring and not paying, you will be fine.

As for your second question, I hope this is a joke.  Your web-surfing is not something they will be investigating.  Think about how many websites the average law student visits in a week, nevermind in five years.  Do you really think AOL or whoever even has records on what websites you accessed 5 years ago?

If you want to see what a pretty standard c&f application looks like, go to www.ncbex.org  In the meantime, relax!