State Seeks Cover For Exposing Law School Grads To COVID

Missouri is monitoring the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak and is very concerned about the risk of exposure. Not the exposure of test-takers, but the more important exposure of the bar examiners to liability after they pack applicants into a crowded hall for a July exam.

That’s why Missouri is joining Mississippi and North Carolina in seeking some sort of weasely cover for themselves in the form adding a liability waiver to the forms applicants have to sign to go forward with the exam.

As we’ve pointed out before, waivers are for bloodsports and human subject trials. If a state seeks this kind of waiver, it’s implicitly recognizing that the July in-person bar examination is the sort of inherently dangerous activity that really doesn’t need to happen at all. There are certainly ways to screw up an online exam process — trust us, DC found a way — but by and large moving to remote testing at a time when new cases in Missouri are seeing triple-digit increases is the more prudent course of action.

But as long as the bar examiners aren’t getting sued, they’re fine turning the exam into the Lake of the Ozarks.

Earlier: North Carolina Also Demands Waiver In Case It Kills Anyone With Bar Exam
Bar Exam Applicants Forced To Sign COVID Waiver In Case In-Person Exam Ends Up Killing Them

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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.