In a dilly of a pickle: Violation of Ordinance back in the day...

[wvu10is]

was 21 at time, I had an open container of beer on the sidewalk. Never mind the hundreds of other people on the sidewalk with beer, it just wasn't my day. Anyways in my stupidity of my younger days I didn't even research what they cited me under, and I didn't show up to court because I had an exam at that same time and figured I'd just pay the $100 fine and try to forget about the whole incident.

Fast forward 5 plus years. I contacted the municipality to get some information about the violation so that I would be able to explain it better in the law school applications. When I looked up the ordinance I was cited under it was for people using fake ID's to purchase liquor. Yet I was standing on the sidewalk with a beer and was 21 at the time. I did further research and found there was another section of the code that I did violate back then.

Question to anyone willing to respond, what the heck do I do? I do not want to lie, but I also need to clear this up because if the law school and eventually the bar do a background check I do not want to seem like I am lying.  Any thoughts??

[Ninja1]

You should probably call a real lawyer in on this one. And by probably, I mean never look at this thread again and do as you've been told. Good luck, it sounds like you got bullshitted and I hope you're able to get this sorted out.

[nealric]

Just honestly explain what happened. That's all that they are looking for- not a detailed analysis of your offense.

[clairel]

You should probably call a real lawyer in on this one. And by probably, I mean never look at this thread again and do as you've been told. Good luck, it sounds like you got bullshitted and I hope you're able to get this sorted out.

TITCR. it probably looks bad if you said it was one thing and your record says another (not for law schools that probablu won't care enough to look into it, but maybe the bar); on the other hand, you also don't want to just go along with it if you were cited under the wrong ordinance. do some research yourself ahead of time to see if there's an easier (aka cheaper) way to clear it up.

[nealric]

I guess I would add that if you were cited under the wrong offense that is something to look into independent of your law school applications. However, I wouldn't worry about character and fitness implications as long as you are honest about what happened.

[naturallybeyoutiful]

Wouldn't there be a police/incident report of some sort?  Seems to me that things could be cleared up relatively easily if this is just an administrative/clerical error.  I agree with getting a real attorney to help with this though.