Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Friday, May 24, 2002

 

Page 3

 

Bar Exam Results to Be Released Over Holiday Weekend

 

By NAZANIN AGANGE, Staff Writer

 

Anxious test-takers need wait no longer to retrieve individual results from the State Bar’s February Bar Examination.

The results will be mailed out to individual applicants starting today, but applicants can access the list of those who passed at the State Bar’s revamped website, www.calbar.ca.gov, after 6 p.m. tonight, the State Bar said on the site.

The complete list of everyone who passed will be available to the public online after 6 a.m. on Sunday as well as in a supplement to the MetNews’ Tuesday edition.

A total of 4,070 people took the general bar exam last February. That number is down from 4,488 applicants in February 2001.

An additional 355 people—down from 375 the previous February—took the attorney exam, which is reserved for those who have been practicing law in a jurisdiction other than California for at least four years and choose to take the shorter test.

To qualify as an attorney in the state of California, general applicants must complete their legal education requirements, register with the Committee of Bar Examiners, pass or be exempted from the First-Year Law Students’ Examination and pass the notoriously difficult bar exam.

After passing the test, applicants must apply for and receive a positive moral character determination from the Committee of Bar Examiners, pass the Multistate Professional Responsibilities Examination administered by the National Conference of Bar Examiners and be in compliance with any court-ordered child or family support duties.

Taking the general test costs $411 plus a $70 registration fee; attorney applicants pay $599 for their test and $70 for registration. Both examinations are given twice a year, in February and July. Late fees, if applicable, run from $50-$250.

Those who pass the test will also be required to pay $335 for the Determination of Moral Character Application.

Fees were raised in 1999 to make the State Bar admissions system self-financing and to avoid a projected $938,164 deficit at the end of 2000.

Those who pass the exam have been determined to be fit to practice law may be sworn in at any of various ceremonies around the state.

The local ceremony will be held at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on June 4, at 10 a.m. The oath to practice in federal court may also be taken at that time.

Most federal courts, including the Central District court for Los Angeles and Orange Counties, will convene specifically to allow newly sworn-in California attorneys to take the federal oath.

The Oakland and Ventura ceremonies will be held on June 4 as well, while Sacramento, Fresno, Orange County, and Riverside/San Bernardino ceremonies will be June 3. The San Diego ceremony will be June 5.

Private ceremonies can also be arranged by the individual.

 

Copyright 2002, Metropolitan News Company