This morning I finally got my application for the Virginia Bar Exam off in the mail. The due date is next week, so I'm glad it finally came through.

I was puzzled, though, by many of the things that the character and fitness questionnaire asked. For example, why do they need to know the full name of my wife? I can kind of understand why they would want a driving record from the DMV of every state I've ever been licensed to drive in, but it's a big pain when you don't have your driver's license numbers anymore (though it is possible, I found out).

Why do they need to know every address I've lived at for the past ten years? Are they really going to go there to see what it's like? To confirm that I did live there (you won't find much in many of these places)? I have forgotten the apartment number of a couple of my past residences, so I just didn't put anything (street numbers were estimated). It's OK, because when I sign, I only indicate that my answers are correct and complete "to the best of my knowledge," which is true (I'm certainly not going to fly out to Los Angeles to find the apartment number of the place I stayed in for the summer of 2000!). But why do they need to know? What could they possibly do with this information? Pity the fool employed by the Virginia Bar who has to check up on applicants' past addresses.

Even stranger, they asked for five personal references--the most sensible request on the application, since my acquaintances can give them a good idea of my character and fitness. But the only contact information they requested for each reference was name, occupation, and mailing address. What, are they going to mail each of these people a letter, asking them to write a letter in support of me? Why not get their phone numbers and just talk?

Maybe one day when I'm a member of the Virginia Bar, I'll understand. But for now, it just seems weird that they wanted to know what high school I went to.