Gulp! Civil procedure will be added to Multistate Bar Exam
Would-be lawyers who take the multiple choice Multistate Bar Exam beginning in February 2015 will have to deal with a seventh section—on civil procedure.
The National Conference of Bar Examiners announced timing of the change in a Feb. 21 letter, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports. Kaplan Bar Review says the addition is “the biggest change to the MBE in nearly 35 years.”
Currently the MBE has sections on con law, contracts, criminal law and procedure, evidence, real property, and torts, according to Kaplan Bar Review. Those sections will be shortened to make room for the new civil procedure section.
The change will make the exam “more challenging overall” since it tends to be one of the most difficult areas of study for students, according to a statement by Christopher Fromm, executive director of bar review programs for Kaplan Bar Review. “For many bar takers, it will mean they’ll be ‘double tested’ on civil procedure, since it’s a topic often covered on state essays and on the Multistate Essay Exam (MEE), which is required by more than half of U.S. jurisdictions,” he said.
