TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Pointing to COVID-19 infection rates, the Florida Board of Bar Examiners will administer the state Bar exam online in February. An announcement of the decision Wednesday came after the exam was administered online in October following two controversial delays. The February administration will take place Feb. 23 and Feb. 24. 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 software problems.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday refused a request to waive a requirement that law school graduates pass the state bar exam to practice law, saying that such a move could result in harm to the public. The petition proposed that law school graduates who were scheduled to take the test this summer be admitted to The Florida Bar after six months of working under the supervision of a Florida attorney. In Thursdays decision, justices noted that the exam has been a Florida Bar requirement for more than five decades. Our failure to administer a secure and reliable bar exam in July and August is bitterly frustrating for the board, for the court, and for applicants. The court and the Florida Board of Bar Examiners took the excitement out of being a lawyer after graduating law school in the meanest way possible.

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. 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. 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.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. The state Supreme Court on Monday released a supervised-practice program for law school graduates who have been unable to take the Florida Bar exam amid the coronavirus pandemic, but critics said the program doesnt go far enough. On Monday, the Supreme Court released a temporary program that will allow law school graduates to work under the supervision of Florida attorneys who have been practicing for at least five years. The program will be available to law school graduates who were signed up to take the test this summer and will exclude people who previously have taken the bar exam. Dozens of Florida lawyers signed onto the proposal, which would have allowed law school graduates to be admitted to The Florida Bar after working under a supervisory attorney for six months. The program announced by the court Monday rankled law school graduates.

Were just left hanging and hanging and hanging, she said. This is Hell, University of Miami law school graduate Johnny Carver wrote in a Twitter post early Monday morning. To help offset the exam postponement, the board created a supervised practice program that is similar to an existing Certified Legal Intern program. The new program will allow for practice with supervision by a member of The Florida Bar, Sundays announcement said. The program will begin in mid-September, when grades would have been released for the July test, the board noted.