Bar Exam Nightmare

  • Law
  • While Nevada temporarily postponed its online bar exam, Michigan went forward with its exam which crashed during the middle of testing. [Detroit Free Press]
  • Some marijuana company litigants are asking for a temporary restraining order to prevent the Nevada Department of Taxation from entering a settlement due to possible collusion. [Nevada Current]
  • Procedural maneuvers cut short the CCSD special board meeting on Superintendent Jara’s performance. [TNI]
  • The Douglas County Sheriff made up with the library. [Las Vegas Sun]
  • Thanks to COVID-19, you won’t have to visit the DMV quite as often in the future. [KTNV]
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 30, 2020 6:41 pm

Amazing Titus spending $11 million on horse birth control.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 30, 2020 8:30 pm

Imagine wild animals being rounded up and slaughtered so our public lands can be exploited by ranchers and mining companies who don't pay their fair share of taxes.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 30, 2020 11:20 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

They are not wild animals, they are feral. Most of them are malnourished and are becoming overpopulated.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 31, 2020 12:03 am
Reply to  Anonymous

They need to be culled. The sooner the better.

Sanger Margaret
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Sanger Margaret
July 31, 2020 1:17 am
Reply to  Anonymous

Those wild horses should be captured, euthanized, and their meat provided to the unfortunate homeless and undocumented populations in Nevada.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 31, 2020 3:07 am
Reply to  Anonymous

I saw what you did there. Very funny. Very funny indeed.

It is regrettable that the US shut down its two horse meat processors years ago. We could have frozen the meat and sold it for profit to other countries that enjoy horse meat.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 30, 2020 8:51 pm

Does anyone else think the Sheriff needs to be fired?

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 31, 2020 2:57 am
Reply to  Anonymous

Sheriffs are elected officials in Nevada. I agree he shouldn't be sheriff, but I imagine the voters of Douglass County and I have different views on the degree to which Black lives matter.

anonymous
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anonymous
July 30, 2020 9:09 pm

The leadership of the CCSD and Board has been a clown show for as long as I can remember, but will someone please explain to me why the proposal allegedly made by Jara is so terrible in light of the current financial crisis? To me it made sense as a temporary measure, but I will fully admit to being an idiot when it comes to school finance.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 30, 2020 9:40 pm

I am sitting for the bar exam. I can say the same for the State Bar and the appellate courts in Nevada. They are all a clown show with this bar exam. I want a refund.

anonymous
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anonymous
July 30, 2020 9:55 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Can't disagree. I'm glad I don't have to go through that again. Good Luck.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 30, 2020 10:18 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

2:40, 2:55. I can't disagree that there are some major problems with this bar exam process including, but not limited to: It largely focuses on matters that have little to do with most attorney's eventual practices; It focuses on and encourages a certain rote simplistic issue identification process which ignores the fact that in the practice of law it is far more important to develop an ability to analytical analyze once the issue is spotted(usually issue spotting is the initial and most simplistic part of any legal undertaking); The curving and grading of the exam is hopelessly subjective as to the essay portions, and would vary widely based on which examiner is grading it, etc.)

And all that is just the tip of the iceberg.

So, I can't argue with the posters' attacks on the Bar Exam. But what they ignore is there has to be some sort of entry process or exam, unless one believes that graduating an accredited law school should entitle you to be licensed in whichever states you please(and, yes, some actually suggest that).

So, yes the bar exam is beyond flawed, but it cannot merely be eliminated. Something much better, far more relevant, and far more fair, must be created to replace it.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 30, 2020 10:32 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

I think you can get a refund if you ask for it.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 31, 2020 3:01 am
Reply to  Anonymous

I am on team scrap the current exam. It's overbroad in that it excludes people who would make lawyers, its too narrow in that it lets unqualified lawyers in. I don't know the solution. I think an open book written exam would be better because that is more similar to actual practice, but even that is probably worthless for measuring the preparedness of non-litigators. I think maybe a supervised practice requirement would be better, but candidly I don't trust a lot of you to supervise baby lawyers, let alone mentor them.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 31, 2020 6:44 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

@2:40 Get your refund and go away.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 2, 2020 3:45 am
Reply to  Anonymous

Huh? Go away, because they don't like the appellate courts or the State Bar? I am taking the Bar, and I am pissed, too. What the hell am I paying for???? More delays, unsafe testing environment???? Whay a welcoming judiciary you have in Nevada.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 2, 2020 3:52 am
Reply to  Anonymous

What

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 2, 2020 4:52 am
Reply to  Anonymous

I hear the weather is lovely in California.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 3, 2020 4:42 am
Reply to  Anonymous

How crystal eller still running for a judicial position.
Eller was suspended from florida bar association in october 2019.
She has been sanctioned once in july with 2 more sanctions to follow.
Auerbach as well. His professional code of conduct and ethics should implicate him to withdraw from race.
Refer to case number 09-31603 mkn.
Re william Taylor debtor september 2013.
Reference pages 42 and 48 of decision.
This will confirm my above statement..

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 3, 2020 4:48 am
Reply to  Anonymous

My apologies william Gaylor debtor

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 3, 2020 7:55 am
Reply to  Anonymous

Vote no on Aurbach and Bonnie Bulla.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 30, 2020 9:46 pm

I realize that all readers of this blog will believe that I deserve life in prison at hard labor(or worse!) if I say anything vaguely in defense of the local activist often known as Voldemort, but I do have an observation that is not totally condemning of him(at least not totally condemning of how he used to be.)

Up until two or three years ago, he did not seem to behave in nearly the manner that he has since then. Back then he did seem to have the support of the overwhelming majority of the judiciary, as well as prominent politicians.

When he held his annual banquet, most of the judiciary would be present, as well as politicians high up in state government. A couple local journalists questioned the true force and effect of his organization and its endorsements, and suggested that so many judges and politicians should not seek his approval and support, but no one seemed to be listening. They wanted the support and the organization's endorsement.

Plus, back then, his approach, although even then leaving something to be desired, seemed far less aggressive than it is now.
Generally, he was reasonably well-regarded by many of the judges, judicial candidates, and politicians that sought his support and endorsements, and no one got too distracted with an analysis of how much he was really helping actual veterans, as opposed to self-promotion.

But for some reason, a couple years back, he declared "War On The Family Court", became a gazillion times more aggressive about attacking certain judges, etc. I don't know what caused such a sudden and dramatic change. I offer the above because those who will say "he has always been this way", the truth is he has not–at least not nearly to this degree.

Everyone on this blog, and elsewhere, takes a tone that all sensible judges and attorneys have always avoided him like the plague. But go back in your time machine about three years and you will see that the truth was something dramatically different than that. Most judges, and judicial candidates, very assertively sought his endorsement, thinking it would deliver the "veteran vote" to them. Anyone who says otherwise is being a convenient revisionist.

I will now begin serving my sentence of Life In Prison With Hard Labor.

be).

Anonymous
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Anonymous
July 30, 2020 10:04 pm

2:46–As I have been told, and as I have also observed,he has always exhibited at least some of the tendencies that have now really been brought front and center.

So, there have always been problems, and they did not just magically appear about three years ago. There was not was one dramatic transformative event or cut-off point, such as his declared "War On Family Court" where things changed 180. He didn't go from amiable activist to raging firebrand overnight.

That said, I agree with the other half of your point–that being that what has dramatically, and relatively quickly, changed was the attitude of many judges, politicians and judicial candidates. They now all act like Voldemort has always been viewed by them as an untouchable, which ignores all the pandering they did up to a few short years ago when they desperately sought his organization's endorsement.

So, I agree with you to the extent that there has been some convenient, and quite revisionist, moral indignation by people who were true enablers of him.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
August 3, 2020 11:42 pm

Minutes from the Supreme Court Order:

Filed Order. On July 30, 2020, Meagan Ortiz, a member of the class of 2020, William S. Boyd School of Law, submitted a petition requesting this court reconsider its July 24, 2020, order postponing the July bar examination to August 11 and 12, 2020. Having reviewed the petition, we elect to construe it as a motion to reconsider our July 24, 2020, order postponing the July 2020 examination and our May 20, 2020, order in which we rejected canceling the examination and granting diploma privilege in favor of a modified examination. The clerk of this court is directed to return the $250 filing fee to Ms. Ortiz, to file the petition received on July 30, 2020, in ADKT 0558, and serve a copy of the petition on the members of the Nevada Board of Bar Examiners and the Director of Admissions, Brian Kunzi. The court has been in contact with the chair of the Nevada Board of Bar Examiners, Richard M. Trachok, II, and Mr. Kunzi concerning these issues and directs the clerk to file, also in ADKT 558, the Julky 29, 2020 letter from Mr. Trachok to the court and the Notice of Applicants from Brian Kunzi the court received on July 29, 2020. The court has also received correspondence from examinees concerning the July 2020 exam which, with the writer's permission, it has forwarded to the clerk for filing in ADKT 558.

If anyone is interested in submitting comments they can do so by sending them to nvscclerk@nvcourts.nv.gov by August 5, 12:00 p.m.