Court: Bar exam still required for lawyers
Order: Test helps protect public from incompetent lawyers
TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday refused a request to waive a requirement that law school graduates pass the state bar exam to practice law, saying that such a move could result in harm to the public.
Dozens of lawyers last month filed a petition with the court seeking to lift the exam requirement for law school graduates who had signed up for a test that was supposed to be conducted in person in July.
A state board switched to an online test amid the coronavirus pandemic, but that test also had to be postponed because of technical problems.
The petition proposed that law school graduates who were scheduled to take the test this summer be admitted to The Florida Bar after six months of working under the supervision of a Florida attorney.
But Thursday’s Supreme Court order said “it is essential for this court to ensure that those seeking to practice law in this state possess ‘knowledge of the fundamental principles of law and their application,’ an ‘ability to reason logically,’ and the preparedness to ‘accurately analyze legal problems,’ before they are allowed to offer their services to the public.”
“Unfortunately, this court regularly sees the extreme harm done to individual members of the public by lawyers who, in practice, fall short of these ‘essential’ requirements,” the opinion by Chief Justice Charles Canady and Justices Ricky Polston, Carlos Muñiz and John Couriel said. Justice Alan Lawson concurred in a separate opinion, and Justice Jorge Labarga was recused from the case.
The petition to lift the exam requirements was filed on Aug. 20, a day after Canady publicly apologized for the latest delay in the test. Later in August, the Supreme Court unveiled a different supervised-practice program that will allow law school graduates to work under the supervision of Florida attorneys who have been practicing for at least five years.
The program will be available to law school graduates who were signed up to take the test this summer and will exclude people who previously have taken the bar exam.
Participants in that program ultimately will need to pass the exam.
Critics, including graduates, law professors and some legislators, maintain the program doesn’t go far enough.
Graduates are facing financial hardships, losing job offers and experiencing severe anxiety amid the delays of the exam, now scheduled to take place online on Oct. 13.
Testing will be extended to Oct. 14 for people who need accommodations.
In Thursday’s decision, justices noted that the exam has been a Florida Bar requirement for more than five decades.
“This court has determined and still believes that law school graduation alone does not sufficiently demonstrate the knowledge, ability, and preparedness necessary to admit a law graduate to the practice of law in Florida,” the majority wrote.