Penalized for writing bar exam after it ended, woman passed but had admission delayed
Observed by fellow applicants continuing to write after time was called during the Multistate Bar Exam portion of the July 2014 bar exam in Ohio, a 2013 law graduate of Case Western Reserve University faced a double whammy.
After an inquiry, the Board of Bar Examiners imposed a 16.7 percent penalty on the MBE portion of the applicant Lingyu Jia’s test. However, even with the sanction she still passed.
So the matter then went before the Board of Commissioners on Character and Fitness. It recommended that Jia’s bar application be put on hold and the Ohio Supreme Court agreed in a Thursday opinion (PDF).
On or after May 1, she will be permitted to file a supplemental character application and affidavit. “(I)f those documents reveal no further character and fitness issues, (she) may be sworn in as a member of the Ohio bar,” the court says.
