The California Bar Exam Fiasco: Is Provisional Licensure The Appropriate Remedy?

Following up on Thursday's post, California Bar Exam Suffers Catastrophic Meltdown: ‘I’ve Never Had This Much Despair And Hopelessness’:  

ABA Journal, California Bar Hunts For Who Leaked Bar Questions, Applicants Sue Test Administrator:

The State Bar of California will engage forensic experts to identify those who posted content from its new exam online, a move that forced it to push back the planned makeup exam of the troubled test riddled with a host of issues with proctors, connectivity and submission problems, according to a Feb. 27 email.

Meanwhile, a group of examinees filed a class action complaint Feb. 27 against ProctorU Inc. alleging that the vendor “failed spectacularly” to administer the test through its Meazure Learning unit, in the Northern District of California. ...

Deans of the California law schools planned to meet the afternoon of Feb. 28 to discuss recommendations for remedies, says Darby Dickerson, the dean of the Southwestern Law School.

“It will certainly be more than a refund. I would hope the bar would consider potentially a provisional license” as was offered as an emergency measure during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dickerson says.

Los Angeles Times, ‘Utterly Botched’: Glitchy Rollout of New California Bar Exam Prompts Lawsuit and Calls For Official Review:

The new exam was promoted by the State Bar of California as a cost-cutting measure that would offer test takers the choice of remote testing. But the deans of many of California’s top law schools had flagged concerns to the State Bar and California Supreme Court for months in the run up to the exams.

“It is stunning incompetence from an entity that exists to measure competence,” Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, told the Times. “There’s no way to describe it other than than outrageous and inexcusable.” ...

Last year, as the State Bar of California faced a $22.2-million deficit, it decided to replace the test questions developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners’ Multistate Bar Examination, which does not allow remote testing. It announced a new $8.25-million five-year deal authorizing test prep company Kaplan Exam Services to create multiple-choice, essays and performance test questions.

The new exam, it projected, would save the bar up to $3.8 million a year.

The Recorder, Law School Deans, Key Lawmaker Urge California Supreme Court to Act on Bar Exam Mess:

The chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday called for a new audit of the state bar to find out "what went so spectacularly wrong" with this week's bar exam.

Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, also called on the bar's board of trustees, who have remained largely silent in the wake of widespread technical issues with the test, "to hold management accountable and ensure that nothing like this ever occurs again."

In a statement released by his office, the senator also suggested that bar executive director Leah Wilson, whose employment contract with the lawyer-licensing agency expires this summer, could face confirmation trouble in the Senate if trustees re-hire her. Until last year, trustees had the authority to hire top executives at the bar. A new law enacted in 2024 requires the Legislature to confirm future bar executive directors and general counsel.

Deans of 12 California-accredited law schools asked the state Supreme Court in a letter Thursday "to remediate the significant harm and damage to our respective law school graduates who were eligible to sit for the 2025 February [bar exam] and have been denied a fair, timely, and valid access to licensure as California attorneys." ...

The law school leaders said the court should also consider provisionally licensing those who had technical problems with the exam in a manner similar to the provisional program offered to some law school graduates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reuters, Calif Bar Exam 'Fiasco' This Week Needs Court Intervention, Law Deans Say:

The Supreme Court of California needs to intervene to help bar exam takers following the chaotic rollout of the state's new test this week, several California law school deans said on Thursday.

“Our worst fears for our students have come to pass,” Michael Hunter Schwartz, dean of the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, told Reuters. Schwartz said that the State Bar of California largely ignored concerns raised by local law deans in the run up to the test, which he called a "failed" exam.

It’s still unclear how many examinees were impacted by tech problems, said Leah Wilson, executive director of the State Bar of California. About 5,600 people registered for the exam. More than 964 had withdrawn as of Monday before the exam began, after the bar offered unprecedented refunds amid anticipated problems.

Reuters, California Bar Exam Test Takers Sue Over ‘Disaster’ Rollout This Week:

A trio of test takers on Thursday filed what looks to be the first lawsuit over California’s problem-plagued February bar exam, alleging that exam vendor Meazure Learning failed to provide a functioning test platform despite ample warning of technical troubles.

The proposed federal class action seeks unspecified damages from Meazure Learning. The State Bar of California is not named as a defendant.

“As a result of the total technical breakdown that Meazure caused, the exam was a disaster for test-takers who were traumatized, who had their career ambitions delayed, and who paid Meazure a fee for a defunct platform,” said the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

• Bloomberg Law, Aspiring California Attorneys Sue Over Bar Exam 'Disaster'
• Bloomberg Law, California Senate Committee Will Examine Bar Testing 'Fiasco'
• Law360, Calif. Bar Using Forensics To Determine Who Leaked Exam Qs
• Law360, Online Test Proctor Sued Over Calif. Bar Exam Malfunctions
• The Recorder, State Bar Offers Exam Retakes but Few Answers About Testing Fiasco
• SFGATE, California's New Bar Exam Launch Was a 'Disaster.' Now Test Takers Are Suing.

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