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State Bar Files Suit Against Administrator of February Exam
By Kimber Cooley, associate editor
The State Bar of California has sued ProctorU Inc., which operates under the name Meazure Learning, over the company’s administration of the botched February bar exam.
On Nov. 7, 2024, Meazure entered into a $4.1 million Master Services Agreement (“MSA”) with the agency, contemplating the use of the company’s platform and services for the administration of the February bar exam. Under the terms of the contract, the company was to administer tests for the State Bar exam through August 2027, at the regulatory body’s election.
Asserting causes of action for fraudulent inducement, false promise, and breach of contract, among other claims, the State Bar seeks compensatory and punitive damages, as well as a declaratory judgment of its rights under the MSA relating to a demand for an independent audit of Meazure’s “compliance with the terms” of the agreement.
In Monday’s complaint, filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court, the agency alleges:
“One of the State Bar’s key responsibilities is to facilitate fair, accessible, and reliable examinations….The State Bar cannot do this alone. It must rely on the integrity and competence of contractors to deliver the Bar Exam efficiently and securely to thousands.”
The pleading continues:
“Enter Meazure, which held itself out as an honest and capable, and indeed superior, high-stakes exam provider. Over months, Meazure made representation after representation to convince the State Bar that it would offer a seamless remote and in-person exam experience worthy of the California Bar Exam. But it is now clear that Meazure could not deliver on its promises.”
Promises Alleged
According to the State Bar, Meazure assured the agency that its systems offered a 99.9% “uptime availability”—referring to the amount of time a system will remain operational—to users of its platform, which hosted the February exam. The agency also alleges that the vendor promised that it could simultaneously handle as many as 25,000 test-takers, and that any issues reported by examinees would be addressed within about one minute.
After volunteers experienced a slew of technological issues during a November test-run, the State Bar says that Meazure assured the body that it could address these issues and better communicate with examinees about computer compatibility requirements.
The pleading alleges that a January mock exam was “rife” with new “technical software and administrative issues,” including reports by test-takers that they were unable to access the exam platform, experienced delays in signing on, typing lags, and unexplained reformatting of written responses. Meazure-provided proctors were purportedly unresponsive and untrained on how to deal with the issues.
Allegedly, the company again promised fixes before the February rollout of the final exam, but those sitting for the remote and in-person tests reported that Meazure’s platform delayed them from beginning, would not allow for the submission of essay responses, suffered frequent crashes, and that proctors were unable to help.
Attorneys Moez M. Kaba, Andrew K. Walsh, and Tate E. Harshbarger of the Los Angeles office of Hueston Hennigan LLP prepared the pleading in cooperation with the Office of General Counsel for the State Bar.
State Bar Comment
On Monday afternoon, State Bar Board of Trustees Chair Brandon Stallings, a Kern County deputy district attorney, said:
“In light of the significant hardships endured by the February 2025 applicants and breach of specific contractual obligations outlined in our agreement, the State Bar has taken decisive action to hold Meazure Learning accountable for its failures. We have the legal right to ensure that vendors deliver on their promises, all the more so given the significant disruptions Meazure Learning caused resulting in unacceptable experiences for our applicants.”
A spokesperson for Meazure yesterday accused the State Bar of trying to “shift the blame for its flawed development process for the February exam” and commented:
“We proudly stand behind our track record of reliably administering over 4 million exams annually and supporting more than 1,000 organizations across industries over the course of our more than 20 years in the testing industry. We recognize the importance of a smooth exam experience, and we regret that some test takers had issues during the February 2025 California Bar Exam….We will defend ourselves vigorously in court.”
Monday’s lawsuit follows the State Bar’s announcement of record-high pass rates, after the California Supreme Court agreed to reduce the success threshold and to impute scores for certain test-takers who were unable to complete the exam, and Friday’s proclamation that Executive Director Leah Wilson will be stepping down from her role in July.
California was the first state to break away from using multiple-choice questions developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners. The high court has ordered the return to in-person testing and the use of those national bar exam inquiries for the upcoming July 2025 test.
Three putative class action complaints have been filed against Meazure in federal court by test-takers who assert that they suffered difficulties with the February test. Meazure has yet to answer the allegations in those lawsuits.
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