The Inevitable Lawsuit Over The Georgia Bar Exam Debacle Has Been Filed

A lawsuit was expected, but there is a bit of a surprise as to the defendant.

onSeptember 14, 2016 at 10:43 AMSeptember 15, 2016 at 12:21 PM

Bored student test From the moment it was announced that the Georgia Bar had mis-graded bar exams from 2015 and 2016, telling 90 students they’d failed the test when in reality they’d passed, people suspected there might be litigation over the incident. The “failers” often suffered professionally and personally, and as hopeful members of the legal profession, one would think they’d avail themselves of the remedies provided in court.

Well, now there’s a lawsuit. Lloyd Dan Murray Jr. is the named plaintiff in this purported class action, and as noted by the Daily Report, there is a very strategic reason the case names exam software company, ILG Information Technologies, as the defendant and not the state bar:

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Bryan County State Court by Brent Savage of Savage Turner & Pinckney in Savannah.

Savage, a veteran personal injury lawyer and author of “Class Actions in Georgia,” said Monday he sued the software company because he believes the state bar would be protected by the same immunity under Georgia law that benefits other state agencies.

“It wouldn’t be awkward for me to sue the state bar,” Savage said. But he determined that a corporation—presumably with assets and insurance—would be the better strategic choice.

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From LexisNexis

Nice move, counselor.

The lawsuit alleges that the software company designed the process by which grades on the essays were scaled, which led to the inaccurate reporting of failure.

We’ll stay tuned to developments in the case to see if this legal strategy pays off.

Suit Targets Software Company for Bar Exam Fiasco [Daily Report]