Opinion
DECIDED: DECEMBER 3, 2008
The Honorable Supreme Court met pursuant to adjournment.
The following order was passed:
Upon consideration, the revised Anonymous Grading Plan prepared by the Board of Bar Examiners pursuant to Part B, Section 9 of the Rules Governing Admission to the Practice of Law in Georgia is approved effective December 3, 2008, as follows:
Anonymous Grading Plan
The Board of Bar Examiners will conduct the Georgia Bar Examination in such a manner that during the period of grading, the identity of the authors of answers to any and all parts of the examination cannot be known to the Board or any member thereof or to the Office of Bar Admissions or any employee thereof. Until the completion of grading, examination answers will be identifiable only by numbers. Each applicant will complete an identifying information card which he or she will place in a numbered envelope. That number will be the applicant's examination number. The envelope containing the identifying information card must be sealed by the applicant and returned to the Board which will then deliver all such sealed envelopes to the Clerk of the Supreme Court of Georgia who will safeguard the envelopes and return them to the Board only upon the written certification of the Chairperson of the Board or any member thereof or the Director of the Office of Bar Admissions that grading of all answers to the bar examination has been completed. When the envelopes have been returned to the Board, Applicant Numbers and names will be matched and the results of the examination announced.
The specific procedures to implement the Anonymous Grading Plan are as follows:
1. Prior to the opening of laptop registration for an upcoming bar examination, the Office of Bar Admissions will prepare a range of 5-digit Applicant Numbers to be used for the examination. A certain range of numbers will be designated for laptop applicants, and another range for handwriting applicants. The laptop range will be communicated to the software vendor supplying laptop testing services for the examination. As each laptop applicant registers, one of the numbers in the laptop range will be assigned to each applicant.
2. Prior to the day of the examination, the Office of Bar Admissions will assign an Applicant Number to each handwriting applicant when that applicant's bar examination application is deemed complete and processed.
3. Prior to the day of the examination, the Office of Bar Admissions will reconcile and confirm the list of names and assigned Applicant Numbers of laptop applicants who have completed registration and the list of names and assigned Applicant Numbers of handwriting applicants.
4. Prior to the day of the examination, the Office of Bar Admissions will prepare numbered envelopes in sufficient quantity for each applicant sitting for the examination. The envelope will have no identifying information on it other than the Applicant Number, and each will contain a numbered card for the applicant's identifying information, a small numbered reference card, and eight numbered bar-coded labels. The envelope, the identifying information card, the small reference card, and the eight labels will all bear the same number, which will be the Applicant Number assigned to each applicant.
5. Prior to the examination, the Office of Bar Admissions will place a numbered envelope at each applicant's place on the examination tables.
6. During the pre-examination instructions at the examination, the applicants will be directed to open the envelopes and complete the identifying information card (applicant's printed name, Social Security number, and signature). The applicants will be instructed to verify that each envelope also contains the small reference card and the eight numbered labels and that the envelope and all contents have the same Applicant Number.
7. Each applicant must complete the identifying information card contained in the envelope, and then must seal the envelope. Each applicant must take care to see that the sealed envelope contains only the information card and that it has nothing on the outside other than the preassigned number and the information requested, but in no event shall the applicant write his or her name on the outside of the envelope.
8. The sealed envelopes will be collected, boxed, and sealed and then delivered to the Clerk of the Supreme Court, who will return them to the Office of Bar Admissions only upon written certification that the grading has been completed.
9. Each applicant should retain the reference card for his or her use as needed during the examination.
10. The eight numbered labels will be used during the Essay/Multistate Performance Test (MPT) portions of the examination. Handwriting applicants will place one of the eight numbered labels on each of the following:
(1) MPT I Question Booklet
(2) MPT I Answer Book
(3) Essay I Answer Book
(4) Essay II Answer Book
(5) MPT II Question Booklet
(6) MPT II Answer Book
(7) Essay III Answer Book
(8) Essay IV Answer Book.
Laptop applicants will place one of the eight numbered labels on:
(1) MPT I Question Booklet
(2) MPT II Question Booklet.
If a laptop applicant completes the entire Essay/MPT portions of the examination on laptop, he or she will have six labels left at the end of the first day of the examination. If, due to a computer malfunction, the laptop applicant has to hand write one or more answers in an answer book, a numbered label must be placed on each answer book.
The only identifying information on the answer books is the 5-digit preassigned Applicant Number on the numbered label.
The only identifying information on the answers entered on laptop computers is the 5-digit preassigned applicant Number which the software automatically enters at the beginning of each answer.
I hereby certify that the above is a true extract from the minutes of the Supreme Court of Georgia
Witness my signature and the seal of said court hereto affixed the day and year last above written.