Nevada and Indiana have both postponed their online bar exams scheduled for July 27, after several users reported tech problems with the bar practice tests.
Indiana pushed back the July 27 one-day online exam to August 4, while Nevada’s two-day bar examination was postponed to August 11 and 12.
Both jurisdictions canceled the online exam due to unforeseen tech issues following an update to the test by the vendor ILG Technologies.
Indiana was one of the first states to announce an online version of the licensing test. The state Supreme Court announced May 7 that it would hold an online exam with adjustments in place due to COVID-19.
The bar exam is just one of many operational changes the Supreme Court has implemented due to the pandemic. The Court created a path for graduate legal interns and held the May attorney swearing-in ceremony for new lawyers remotely.
“Earlier this week applicants started to experience delays when typing during practice tests. We know this added unnecessary anxiety to the applicants and impacted their ability to study in this critical week.” explained, the Executive Director of the Indiana Supreme Court’s Office of Admissions and Continuing Education Brad Skolnik.
The Supreme Court of Nevada issued an order postponing the exam at the request of the Nevada Board of Bar Examiners.
“We have been pre-testing the software used to administer the bar exam remotely. The pre-testing revealed a problem the vendor is correcting this weekend,” said Brian Kunzi, Director of Admissions for the State Bar of Nevada. “With the exam scheduled to start Tuesday, this does not leave time for a final pre-test of the software. Rather than risk problems during the exam, the decision was made to postpone the exam.”
The Nevada Board of Bar Examiners will post updates on its website July 31 and Aug. 5 reporting on the vendor’s progress to fix the technical issues and on Indiana’s administration of its rescheduled bar exam on Aug. 4.
Indiana and Nevada are one of the jurisdictions that designed their own bar exams, as have Michigan and Florida. Fifteen other states plan to offer an abbreviated online exam prepared by the National Conference of Bar Examiners
Many other states including New York, California, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, and Ohio plan to give an abbreviated online bar exam in October.
By now three states — Utah, Washington, and Oregon — have joined Wisconsin in allowing in-state aspiring attorneys to practice law without taking the bar exam, while New York has proposed legislation to grant emergency diploma privilege.