Bar exam debacle affects anxious law school graduates

A national company, ExamSoft, that processes bar exams for many states, including Iowa, had a major failure with its software Tuesday and already-stressed law school graduates faced more anxiety as they missed deadlines and possible penalties.

Steve Davis, Iowa Judicial Branch communications officer, said Wednesday about 20 law school graduates could be affected across the state who haven't yet uploaded their tests, but state exam officials will work with those having issues and they will not be penalized. There are eight Iowa examinees on one test and 12 on another who haven't yet uploaded their answers.

The deadline for upload in Iowa is 11 p.m. Wednesday, Davis said.

Above The Law blog called it the 'biggest bar exam debacle” in history. The site compiled comments Wednesday from law school graduates dealing with the situation.

According to the ExamSoft website, it was a technical problem still under investigation. It took six hours longer to process the bar answers on the company's servers, but nearly all the backlog had been processed early Wednesday.

ExamSoft officials said the delay didn't affect the bar applicants' content.

l Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com