Legal Research

Student loans equal lack of character & fitness for bar?

By Pamela

The Ohio Supreme Court has recently affirmed the recommendation of the Ohio Board of Commissioners on Character & Fitness that an applicant be denied permission to take the bar exam.  The applicant had $170,000 in student loans, $16,500 in credit card debts, and no plan to repay them.  At least, no plan acceptable to the commissioners.  The court stated:

We accept the board?s findings of fact and conclude that the applicant has neglected his personal financial obligations by electing to maintain his part-time employment with the Public Defender?s Office in the hope that it will lead to a full-time position upon passage of the bar exam, rather than seeking full-time employment, which he acknowledges would give him a better opportunity to pay his obligations and possibly qualify him for an additional deferment of his student-loan obligation.

A catch-22 if there ever was one.

Full post as published by Cocky Law Blawg on January 13, 2011 (boomark / email).