09 Sep Georgia Tells Dozens that Passed the Bar they Failed

As if becoming a lawyer isn’t hard enough. As has been widely reported, Georgia messed up and accidentally told 90 people they failed the bar exam in February of 2015 and 2016 when in fact they passed. They say they are doing their best to get in touch with people to correct the error. They claim it was a new testing methodology at fault. They’ve now returned to the old one and reimbursed the exam takers for any additional exams they took.

This has happened before. Nebraska “miscorrected” a dozen scores a few years ago and had to fix it. The year I took the NY bar, the test answer sheets of hundreds who took the exam at Town Hall in the city were simply lost on a truck. They all had to take the national part of the bar again a few months later. I can’t imagine the heartache and roller coaster ride these situations create. I was that kid who was never nervous for any test, including standardized ones. Except for the bar. It was the big one, the whole enchilada. Failure was not an option. So I really feel for these folks.

Many who love to needle we humble attorneys, when learning of this, laugh it off and harken back to all the lawyer jokes we all know. How do you know when a lawyer is lying? His lips move. How many lawyers does it take to screw in a light bulb? How many can you afford? How cold was it? So cold the lawyer had his hands in his own pockets. There are good and bad people in every line of work and profession. Let’s remember to celebrate, incentivize and reward the good, then maybe the world becomes a better place.