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The bar exam — as we all know — is a high-stakes ordeal. You either pass and get to make a huge Facebook/LinkedIn post in celebration (followed by being ridiculed) or you’re forced to stick your nose back in the books to make good on your six-figure degree. To fail the bar is human, but to worry that the reason you scored so low was because you were pissed off at the proctor is hellish. Screw a “we’re sorry” email; what’s justice without an enforcement mechanism? This bar applicant was mad enough to take the bar to court. If only it went in her favor. From the ABA Journal:
In a Nov. 9 opinion, the state supreme court rejected arguments by Marla Matrice Murphy, who took the Delaware bar exam in July 2021 and failed….After Murphy requested accommodations, she was told that she would be given twice the time to take the exam, a private room in which to take it, and scratch paper during the exam. She never received the scratch paper. And she contended that software failures deprived her of the double time that she was supposed to have, and the proctors’ distractions deprived her of the private-room accommodation.
Murphy was met with a parade of horribles: a proctor’s ringing phone and loud typing, a second proctor’s repeated coughing and pacing, not to mention her software crashing three times and eating up 45 minutes of her exam time.
After the second crash, I would have seriously considered another vocation.
Far from the sought out damages, the court decided that the proper remedy would have been for her to get another crack at the bar free of charge with the proper accommodations. If you ask me, the remedy should also include the provision that Murphy would get different proctors — things are bad enough without feeling like you’re in Groundhog Day.
To Murphy — and anyone else reading this — best of luck with the bar!
Bar Applicant Denied Damages For Test Mishaps And Proctor Distractions [ABA Journal]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
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