Imagine if you were responsible for telling 15 law school graduates they actually didn’t pass the bar exam like initially reported to them. Yeah, that one might take a while for people to forget.
Fifteen people in Kentucky were told they passed the October bar exam, but were later notified that was not the case. Three people who were initially told they had failed, were later notified they did pass. The results of the Oct. 5-6 Kentucky bar exam were posted on Nov. 30. The 18 law grads were notified on Dec. 3 of the human error.
Valetta Browne, executive director at the Kentucky Office of Bar Admissions, issued a statement and apologized for the mistake on the Admissions website.
“I want to apologize to every applicant affected by the incorrect Kentucky Bar Exam results that were issued by my office earlier this week. I know that no apology can undo the anguish and disappointment that these bar examinees and their families have endured. We sincerely regret this mistake, which was the result of a data entry error. The mistake was not discovered prior to results posting on Monday. Once we realized there was an issue, our priority was correcting the results and making any necessary adjustments. All affected applicants were personally notified yesterday, December 3, 2020, of their adjusted score and exam result.”
Still, it was hard news to accept.
“To have come this far and get so close, literally close enough that I held in my hands a piece of paper that said I’d passed, and to be told, nope, sorry, that’s not the case, it’s a gut punch,” Andrew Skomorowksy, one of the people affected by the error, told ABC Louisville, Ky., affiliate WHAS after the notification.
Skomorowsky told WHAS that this was his third time taking the bar exam. And that the news of failing, again, has been especially hard for him to get over.
Kentucky State Representative James Nemes has been very vocal, both to the local media outlets and on Twitter, about his thoughts and outrage about what happened. He tweeted, “Heads have to roll for this.”
If there’s a silver lining in this story — it’s small — but it’s for the three people who were told they failed, and later in the week were relieved to hear they actually passed the exam.
