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In re Supreme Court Rules, Article II

Supreme Court of Rhode Island
Jul 31, 2002
(R.I. Jul. 31, 2002)

Opinion

July 31, 2002


Effective for the February 2004 bar examination ORDER

Supreme Court, Article II, Rule 4, is hereby amended to read as follows:

An applicant for admission by examination shall pay to the Character and Fitness Committee a fee of Three Hundred Fifty-Dollars ($350.00). An applicant who has failed an examination and wishes to take a subsequent examination shall pay to the clerk a fee of One Hundred Seventy-five ($175.00). Attorneys seeking admission under Rule 2 shall pay to the Clerk, a fee of ($550.00) and a fee of Two Hundred Fifty Dollars ($250.00) to the National Conference of Bar Examiners. At least ten days prior to examination or, in the case of applicants for admission on motion, at least seven (7) days prior to such admission, the board shall cause to be published in a legal notice of news story in a daily newspaper of general circulation in this state the name of such applicant.

Entered as an order of this court this 31st day of July, 2002.

Temporary rule to Practice and Procedures of Rhode Island Board of Bar Examiners

The following Temporary Rule will govern the content and grading of bar examinations beginning with the February 2004 examination through the July 2005 examination. The Board of Bar Examiners invites written comments on the Temporary Rule and the use on a permanent basis of one or two Multi-State Performance Tests as part of the essay portion of the Bar Examination.

Content

Examinations will be administered on two consecutive days. There will be two three-hour sessions each day.

On one day, one three-hour session will consist of one Multi-State Performance Test (MPT) problem prepared by the National Conference of Bar Examiners and three essays prepared by the Board of Bar Examiners. The other session of the same day will consist of six essays prepared by the Board of Bar Examiners.

The MPT problem will not exceed 90 minutes, shall not require specialized subject matter knowledge and shall include all of the resource materials necessary to prepare an essay response to the problem.

The essays prepared by the Board of Bar Examiners may cover all or some of the following general areas: business entities (corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, etc.); civil practice and procedure, including equity; probate, wills and trusts; conflict of laws; sales, commercial paper, secured transactions and creditors' rights; and domestic relations.

On the other day, the Multi-state Bar Examination (MBE), prepared by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, will be administered in two three-hour sessions. The multiple choice questions on the MBE cover contracts, criminal law, evidence, real property, torts and constitutional law.

Grading

The MBE examinations are graded by the National Conference of Bar Examiners on a scaled scoring system with scores ranging from 1 to 200. A scaled score of 130 on the MBE portion of the examination shall be required to pass the bar examination, and graders will not read the essay or MPT responses of any candidate whose scaled score on the MBE is lower than 130.

Each of the essay and MPT answers shall be graded on a six-point scale, with six being the highest score and 0 being the score if the applicant did not submit an answer or if the answer is totally irrelevant. Each MPT score shall be multiplied by two so as to be weighed the same as two essay responses, and the applicant's MPT and essay scores shall be aggregated. The maximum raw score for the MPT and essay answers shall be 66 (9 x 6 on the essays and 2 x 6 on the MPT problem). The aggregate scores shall then be scaled against the MBE scores of the Rhode Island applicants (ignoring those Rhode Island Applicants whose scaled score on the MBE was lower than 130). The scaled scores of the MBE, essays and MPT will then be totaled. A resulting score of 276 shall be required to pass the examination.

Rule 2 Admissions

Candidates for admission under Rule 2 shall be required to take only the essay and MPT portions of the examination. The raw scores of these candidates will be scaled to the MPT and essay scores of the candidates taking both parts of the examination, and a scaled score of 138 will be required to pass the examination.

(Entered as an order of this court this 31st day of July, 2002.)


Summaries of

In re Supreme Court Rules, Article II

Supreme Court of Rhode Island
Jul 31, 2002
(R.I. Jul. 31, 2002)
Case details for

In re Supreme Court Rules, Article II

Case Details

Full title:In Re Supreme Court Rules, Article II

Court:Supreme Court of Rhode Island

Date published: Jul 31, 2002

Citations

(R.I. Jul. 31, 2002)