Disclose non-conviction misdemeanor?

[megee333]

Hi,

Extremely stupidly, I was detained shoplifting in a dept store by security guards, a policeman attended, I was given a court date, police no-show, non-conviction of lowest misdemeanor.

This took place this year (2010) and I am applying for 2011 Fall entry to law school.

I am assuming that not mentioning this is potentially far worse than bringing it up but will it harm my applications?

No other blemishes.

Thank you.

[bigs5068]

Your school will never find out, but when you do the bar background it will pop up and the fact that you did did not disclose it may disqualify you. The actual event itself probably won't harm you, but hiding it will. It is best to simply come clean with any type of thing like this. It will be 100x worse if you lie or hide it than if you are upfront.

[marcus-aurelius]

Disclose it if an application asks have you been arrested for any crime.  I have found that some, but not all ask that.  Most have asked either have you ever been convicted or charged with a misdemeanor.  So don't worry to much about it

[bigs5068]

Maybe, but you should check with the state bar you are going to take and make sure they won't mind. You can hide it from the school if you want they are probably not going to do an extensive background check on you, but the bar will. It will suck pretty bad if you spend three years of your life and 100k then find out you needed to disclose this, or there was some time period you needed to wait after a misdemeanor before sitting for the bar. It is probably a minor issue if you come forward with it, but do not try to be sneaky with stuff like this. Also this is pretty recent and do NOT do anything like this when you are in school. If you commit something like this while you are in school you might get expelled. Law school is serious business,  imagine if you had a lawyer working on an important case and you paid him thousands of dollars and he/she got caught shoplifting? You would probably fire him and complain to the bar about it.

[megee333]

Thanks for the replies and as I thought, best to be upfront about it if asked.

And nothing like this will ever happen again, I will not jeopardize this opportunity I have.

[louiebstef]

I will simply tell you what my ethics professor told our class about things like this.
When it comes to the Bar:  DISCLOSE, DISCLOSE, DISCLOSE.

Better to let the Bar decide what it will overlook, it is BAD juju when you are found to have witheld information on your Bar app.
The professor I am talking about is also an officer of the Florida Bar (and we are an integrated Bar-membership and licensure are mandatory), and president of the local bar association.

Hope this helps.