Pointing to “disproportionate rates of policing and prosecution experienced in communities of color,” New York state’s Appellate Division on Thursday announced it has pared back its bar-admission question on applicants’ law enforcement encounters as a way to promote better equity and diversity in the bar.
Under the change, bar admission question 26 will no longer require applicants to list matters that were adjudicated in a juvenile delinquency proceeding in state Family Court or through “other equivalent noncriminal proceedings,” the Appellate Division said. In addition, applicants won’t have to report “citations, tickets, arrests, and other encounters with law enforcement that did not result in formal criminal charges or an indictment, trial, conviction, or guilty plea,” the announcement said.
