MINNEAPOLIS — Right now the world is experiencing a whole lot of change. With California and Florida leading the U.S. in confirmed COVID-19 cases, states are adjusting, readjusting, reopening and reconsidering.
However, during this time of change, the Minnesota State Bar Exam will go on as planned. This is the exam that law students have to take before they can become a certified lawyer.
'Stressful' probably doesn't even cut it, given the circumstances Cristina Cruz and Jackie Fielding have been working with. As graduates of the University of Minnesota Law School, they've been studying for the bar exam along with many others, during the pandemic and during civil unrest following the death of George Floyd.
"There's the emotional toll, the economic toll, health toll and also this moral toll that having the Bar impending this entire time taken on us as we are experiencing all of these incredible phenomenon in our city, our homes and our communities," Cruz said.
"You're assuming that there's going to be 10 weeks where you will be economically available to not work, focus on studying every single day," Fielding described. "My Bar prep organization told me I should be working five to 8 hours a day, seven days a week."
On top of that they found out that they have to take their bar exam in-person, at one of three testing sites, despite the pandemic.
The Minnesota Board of Law Examiners said each site will be at 25 percent capacity with fewer than 250 people per location. In their COVID-19 response, they state that some applicants will be in separate rooms, and some in separate 'areas.'
This idea did not sit well with many students who have to be there for the exam, which takes place over two days for a total of 12 hours. So they wrote a petition.
"The Supreme Court reviewed our petition, reviewed all of these comments and decided that it was safe enough to give this exam because the Minnesota Board of Law Examiners is technically complying with regulations that the health department has issued," Cruz said.
Cruz said she's worried about being an asymptomatic carrier of the Coronavirus herself, or that others will be around her.
"I am genuinely worried that we are putting lives at risk by administering this exam," she said.
Cruz said being indoors just doesn't feel safe to her. Plus, she said she doesn't know where the other applicants are coming from.
"We could have ten people from Florida in the room with us and we don't know that," she said. "The Bar doesn't know that. The board isn't asking those things."
KARE 11 has reached out to the Board of Law Examiners and received this statement:
"The Board has addressed the safety protocols that have been taken for this examination in the Preparedness Plan posted to the Board’s website. Additional information related to your inquiry may be found on pages 2 and 3. Please note that these are maximum numbers and the Board is still permitting applicants to move forward their application to future examinations without re-submission of their application or payment of additional fees and so the total number who will be tested may go down. The Board will adhere to any travel quarantines issued by the State of Minnesota and will require applicants to self-affirm that they have done likewise. Following the examination and release of results, the Board provides details as to how many applicants who sat for the examination attended in-state versus out-of-state law schools, but we do not provide a breakdown by state of residence."
Fielding, who has been reassigned to take her exam in September instead of the end of this month, said she doesn't feel like they've given applicants much of a choice.
"They've been banking on more than three years of work of taking the law school admission test, going to an accredited law school, completing all those graduation requirements, graduating, studying for the Bar and now at this moment, they're going to let go of their job that will pay back their student loans?" she said. "How is that an informed choice?"
After the petition was filed, there was a public comment period during which many people brought forward other alternatives to the in-person exam that other states have adopted. Online exams, staggered exam dates, and diploma privileges have all been brought up.
Cruz explained that diploma privileges are given to law school graduates who graduated from American Bar Association accredited schools. It allows those graduates to practice law without having to sit for an exam. Wisconsin currently has Marquette University Law School and the University of Wisconsin Law School on that list.
However, the Supreme Court has ruled and the exam will go on as scheduled on July 28th.
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