Kentucky Bar Exam Screw Up: ‘Sorry, You Actually Failed’

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — More than a dozen aspiring Kentucky lawyers thought they passed the bar exam, only to be told later they didn’t.

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The Kentucky Office of Bar Admissions said 18 people were “informed incorrectly” about their bar exam results. There were 15 people who were told they passed when they hadn’t; three others were told they had not passed when they had.

Executive Director Valetta Browne shared a statement on the Kentucky Office of Bar Admissions website Friday morning, apologizing for the incorrect results and pointing to an error in data entry.

“I know that no apology can undo the anguish and disappointment that these Bar examinees and their families have endured. We sincerely regret this mistake,” Browne’s statement said, in part.

Source : Above the Law

The Board of Bar Examiners and Supreme Court have waived all application fees for the February Bar exam for the fifteen applicants who were informed that they did not pass the October Bar exam. Most examinees who have been practicing law under the Supervised Practice Order initiated by the Kentucky Supreme Court may continue to do.

“It’s like having all of your hopes and dreams, you succeed and got those and they’re like oh no, we’re going to take that back and it’s impossible to describe that kind of disappointment,” said Timothy Poole.

Like many, an email sent to Timothy Poole this week confirmed he was one step closer to being an official civil lawyer, after taking the bar exam in October.

“I was elated, I told my family, I told my friends and I told my clients that I was working with under supervised practice,” said Poole.

But it was the phone call on Thursday, that 14 other people received as well, that delayed his dream.

“I wished it had been a prank. That’s what it felt like at first, so after the phone call I even tried calling back the number and it was indeed the Kentucky Bar Association,” said Poole.

Kentucky State Representative Jason Nemes took to Twitter to express his concerns: “Heads have to roll for this. It is incredible and unacceptable,” he wrote.

“There was a human being that was entering the information on a spreadsheet. I think they maybe double entered, or something like that. Once they mess up one of the fields, then every field below that is going to be affected,” State Rep. Nemes told WHAS11 on Friday.

Executive Director Valetta Browne stated, “I want to apologize to every applicant affected by the incorrect Kentucky Bar Exam results that were issued by my office earlier this week. I know that no apology can undo the anguish and disappointment that these bar examinees and their families have endured. We sincerely regret this mistake, which was the result of a data entry error. The mistake was not discovered prior to results posting on Monday. Once we realized there was an issue, our priority was correcting the results and making any necessary adjustments. All affected applicants were personally notified yesterday, December 3, 2020, of their adjusted score and exam result.”

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