The Supreme Court of California announced on Monday that the July California Bar Exam will be postponed to Sept. 9-10 and ordered the State Bar to make every effort possible to administer the test online with a combination of remote or electronic proctoring.

In a letter to the San Francisco-based State Bar, The court wrote that they have taken into account ‘‘the health and safety issues presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the enormous challenges this public health crisis has placed before those who seek admission to the California bar, including the graduating law school class of 2020.” 

According to the letter to the State Bar Board of Trustees, The California Supreme Court also approved the following measures: 

• Work with the Bar Examiners to facilitate online administration of the September 2020 Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) or some variation of it.
• Postpone the October First-Year Law Students’ Examination to November to maximize grading resources for the Bar Exam.
• Continue efforts to administer the June 2020 First-Year Law Students’ Examination online with remote and/or electronic proctoring. Students will have four opportunities( instead of the current three) to pass the exam to be eligible for law school credit beyond the first year.
• Submit a work plan for the online administration of the tests to the court no later than May 11
• allow those registered for the regular exam now scheduled in September to withdraw with a full refund through Sept. 8.
•  Exam results should be available to takers no later than Dec. 31

The National Conference of Bar Examiners, which provides the Multistate Bar Examination, will formally announce its exam dates and plans for administering exams on May 5.