TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A controversial online exam for admission to The Florida Bar will be held Oct. 13, with testing extended to Oct. 14 for people who need accommodations, the Florida Supreme Court said Wednesday.
The scheduling of the exam comes amid harsh criticism of the Florida Board of Bar Examiners, which has twice delayed the test.
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The board called off an in-person July exam after graduates, law school professors and legislators argued that holding the test in person would be contrary to health officials’ social-distancing recommendations and would pose a danger to test-takers with underlying medical conditions who have higher risks of complications from COVID-19. The board rescheduled the exam for Aug. 19 and said it would be held online. Three days before the scheduled exam, however, the board called it off, pointing to problems with ILG Technologies software.
The October exam “will be administered using an online format provided by ExamSoft, a company with more than 20 years’ experience with delivery of online exams,” Wednesday’s announcement said.
The Supreme Court, which oversees the Board of Bar Examiners, has also appointed a “registrant advocate” to “aid in assuring that registrants’ concerns about administration of this examination are timely addressed,” according to the announcement.
Foul-ups with the Florida exam have drawn national attention and sparked social media outrage among law school graduates and their supporters, who say that the postponements have caused financial hardships and mental distress.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Canady last week apologized for the delays, and the court on Monday ordered the Board of Bar Examiners to create a supervised-practice program for people who had signed up to take the July exam. The program will allow certain law-school graduates to work under the supervision of attorneys until they take the exam. Critics, however, maintain that this spring’s graduates should be exempt from the exam requirements.
Dozens of Florida lawyers filed a petition with the Supreme Court last week proposing a six-month supervisory-practice program that would replace the Bar exam requirement.
“These folks really need to work. They need to get a job. It’s hard enough to take the exam. It’s even harder taking it while having a job and be successful in the job,” Miami lawyer Matthew Dietz, who co-authored the petition, told The News Service of Florida this week.