The COVID-19 case bounce has changed the date and place of the Florida Bar exam
Prospective attorneys won’t have to travel or risk being part of Florida’s recent COVID-19 case jump to pass the Florida Bar. This year’s Florida Bar exam will be online, after weeks of pleas from law students who feared getting sick if the exam proceeded as planned.
The Supreme Court of Florida on Wednesday announced approval of the Florida Board of Bar Examiners move.
Instead of July 28 and 29 in Tampa and Orlando (the split in venues a nod to the novel coronavirus pandemic), the test will be given Aug. 18 this year. It will have 100 multiple-choice questions and three essay questions.
Those taking the Bar this year will need a computer with a webcam to allow for proctor oversight, and a dependable Internet connection.
“The Board will not provide technical support during the administration of the examination,” the Board of Bar Examiners said.
The announcement followed online efforts from members of the legal community who were concerned that the state had not taken action until 28 days before the test was set to take place.
Part of the efforts included an April letter written by a group of deans from seven law schools asking the Florida Supreme Court and the Florida Board of Bar Examiners to evaluate other options, such as allowing legal interns to practice law until they could take the bar exam.
An online law student petition asking for an alternative to the usual two-day test in Tampa had 1,300 signatures as of Monday.
“We noticed that there was a huge wave around the country of law students, scholars, professors and lawyers advocating for different administrations of the exam and not a physical administration due to the pandemic,” said Bianca Baez, a law school graduate from Florida State University who helped organize the student petition with others around the state.
But even with the new accommodations, Baez said that it doesn’t take into account aspiring lawyers like her who have already passed the Florida Bar Exam portion of the test and are only hoping to take the Multistate Bar Examination, which tests knowledge on federal law.
The August exam will include both portions at the same time. One of her options is to take the MBE portion in another state.
“I honestly still don’t know what option I’m going to choose, but seems like some of us were forgotten and suffered for the greater good,” Baez said. “I was strongly and actively advocating for changes to this in-person exam. The achieved result today ... doesn’t event take me into account.”
For more information, consult the Florida Board of Bar Examiners website and Wednesday’s announcement.
This story was originally published July 1, 2020 at 1:40 PM.
