State Bar refutes lawsuit allegation, says exams graded correctly

By Steve Kanigher

Friday, April 8, 2011 | 12:12 p.m.

The State Bar of Nevada on Thursday said on its website that the bar exams administered by the Nevada Board of Bar Examiners in February 2010 were graded correctly, refuting an allegation made in a lawsuit last month by former employees who sued the bar.

In the lawsuit filed in Clark County District Court by Patrice Eichman, Tiffany Breinig and Georgia Taylor, the plaintiffs alleged that grading errors were made that caused individuals who had not actually passed the exam to be admitted to the bar.

Eichman based the allegation on her 13 years of experience overseeing the bar's admission's department, the low passage rate in February 2010 and the published test results, "which included several individuals who had repeatedly failed previous bar exams."

The lawsuit alleged that the February 2010 passage rate was the lowest in Nevada's history and that the bar "has never taken any steps to determine the reason for the improbable results."

The bar indicated on its website that 48 percent of the test takers passed that exam. By the time Eichman resigned last April, the bar exams had already been graded by the bar examiners board and submitted to Eichman and her staff, the State Bar said.

"The scores were collated and transcribed by the same employee who had done so on the previous eight bar exams," the bar stated. "Another employee then checked the entries.

"The members of the Board of Bar Examiners re-read and re-grade all questions for a number of examinees failing the bar exam each time the exam is given. The board is confident that no failing scores were inadvertently scored as a pass on the February 2010 exam."

The State Bar also said that after Eichman's allegations were aired, an audit of the February 2010 exam was performed.

"No mistakes affecting the results were discovered," the bar said.

The lawsuit also contained allegations that the three former employees were subjected to abuse and intimidation by Bar Executive Director Kimberly Farmer. The State Bar promptly denied the accusations, saying they amount to "griping by former employees who could not, or would not, adapt to changing work requirements."