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New law graduates in many states experienced a technology snafu at the worst possible time Tuesday night: as they were attempting to upload bar examinations just before deadlines in their states. Many reported spending hours trying and failing to upload their answers. ExamSoft, a company that manages the bar test submission process in many states, acknowledged "slowness or difficulty" being experienced by many test-takers, and said that it was sorry for the difficulties many were having. The company, working with various state bar associations, announced 17 deadline extensions by states, so that people who couldn't submit their exams would not be penalized.
The legal blog Above the Law posted some of the emails and social media messages being posted by angry law graduates. the blog said that the situation "appears to be the biggest bar exam debacle in history."
Many bar exams continue today, so the frustrated test-takers who were up late, some fearing that they may have failed by not submitting their day's results, have another stressful day ahead of them, for many of them without as much sleep as they might have had otherwise. One comment on the ExamSoft page on Facebook said: "This is unbelievably disrespectful. I don't think you quite understand the pressure we are all under. We understand technical issues happen (although you are supposed to be a tech company), but your 'support staff' is a joke and you should at the VERY least had updates for each of the states BEFORE their respective deadlines. Now we are wondering, HOURS before a second day of grueling testing if any of it will matter. Please answer the states with past or remaining deadlines. Or get someone to answer the phone, chat or email--> have been trying all three methods for 4 hours. Thanks."
One law blogger, Josh Blackman, wondered what would happen if failure rates are higher this year. He explained: "And for crying out loud, this is serious business. Failing the bar in this economy is a 6-month sentence of unemployment. Somewhere, a plaintiff’s lawyer is putting together a class-action suit for those who used ExamSoft and failed."
