(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Louisiana is, without a doubt, approaching its bar exam with more professionalism and common sense than most jurisdictions. The state supreme court has already instituted a quasi-diploma privilege system allowing anyone who graduated either in the Spring or last December from an ABA-accredited school, and had not previously sat for the exam, to skip the written bar examination with the caveat that they complete some additional post-licensing requirements. So take all of the following criticism with context in mind.
Even after the court’s order, there are some applicants who will still need to take the exam. In this case, a one-day, open-book, remote test. That test was scheduled for August 24, but due to the two hurricanes descending upon Louisiana at the time, they wisely put off the test to allow examinees to concentrate on the more pressing need to evacuate or otherwise batten down the hatches.
Unfortunately, they delayed it only until next Monday, meaning the folks who woke up this morning to massive flooding and terrific wind damage have to get their heads back in the game for a test in four days.
More than half a million people are without power! There are doubtless some additional broadband outages across the state too.
I’m a big believer in keeping delays to a minimum. Examinees shouldn’t be forced to hold this useless information in their heads for too long — though an open-book exam helps on this count! — but might we be jumping the gun to ask them to take a licensing exam less than a week after a storm described as “unsurvivable”?
Maybe?
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.