The State Bar of California and other state officials are taking legal and legislative steps that they hope will prevent a repeat of the chaotic and problem-plagued rollout of California’s February bar exam.
The State Bar filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court on May 5 against Meazure Learning, the vendor it hired to administer the test remotely and at in-person test sites. The complaint alleges Meazure Learning engaged in fraud, breach of contract and negligent misrepresentation after the vendor promised a seamless test-taking experience for thousands of law students that would be free of material defects.
Even though the exam involved only about 4,200 applicants, or less than 20% of Meazure’s stated 25,000-exam capacity, many applicants could not even sign in to Meazure’s platform without significant delays, according to the lawsuit. For others, a spell check feature caused the platform to freeze, some test takers were not able to submit responses and the system could not even keep up with the pace of students’ typing, the complaint said.
“Since the February 2025 Bar Exam, the State Bar has tried to fully understand the scope of Meazure’s failures, as is the State Bar’s contractual right,” the lawsuit states. “Yet Meazure has employed delay and deny tactics to prevent the State Bar from obtaining full and critical information.”
The lawsuit was filed just prior to the California Senate Judiciary Committee holding a hearing about Senate Bill 47, authored by committee Chairman Thomas Umberg (D-Santa Ana). The bill would compel an audit to explore how the exam was prepared and administered.
The filing of the complaint also comes in the wake of the state Supreme Court approving an adjustment to the scoring of the February exam due to problems the test takers experienced. The passing score was set at 534 points out of a possible 700 points for written questions and 171 possible points for the multiple-choice questions, the court said in a May 2 order.
The order also expressed some unease over the vendor’s use of artificial intelligence to create multiple-choice questions.
“The court remains concerned over the processes used to draft those questions, including the previously undisclosed use of artificial intelligence, and will await the results of the impending audits of the examination,” the court said, adding that the standardized Multistate Bar Examination developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners would be used for the multiple-choice component of the bar exam to be given in July.
It remains unclear if artificial intelligence would be allowed in the development of exams given after July.
“While (the July exam) is the State Bar’s focus, any future plans would require the approval of the Committee of Bar Examiners before they are implemented, including how multiple-choice questions are created,” a State Bar spokesman told the Southern California Record in an email.
In contracting with Meazure to administer the February bar exam, the State Bar’s goal was to make the exam more affordable and accessible to test takers, as well as to keep the State Bar’s admission fund solvent, according to the lawsuit.
"We have the legal right to ensure that vendors deliver on their promises, all the more so given the significant disruptions Meazure Learning caused resulting in unacceptable experiences for our applicants," Brandon Stallings, the chairman of the State Bar Board of Trustees, said in a prepared statement.