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The next administration of the Georgia Bar Exam is currently scheduled to take place in person on September 9 and 10, 2020, in Atlanta, GA. COVID-19 cases have steadily increased in numbers across the state of Georgia in recent weeks, showing no signs of slowing down in the coming months as the state moves forward with reopening the state completely.

Back in April, Georgia was one of the few states that was proactive in its approach to postpone the July 2020 in person bar exam to September 2020. However, since then Georgia's cases of COVID-19 have continued to rise. 

According to the Georgia Department of Public Health, more than 2,300 cases were reported in the last 24 hours. Since Friday, June 26, more than 6,422 new cases have been reported bringing the total to 79,417.

As of July 14, Georgia announced a record-breaking one-day spike in coronavirus, logging 4,400 new confirmed cases. 

The Georgia Supreme Court on extended the judicial emergency that was put in place early during the coronavirus pandemic and led to the suspension of jury trials and many nonessential court functions, including eviction hearings. 

The emergency order was reissued just hours before it was set to expire last week. It now extends until midnight on Tuesday, August 11. And will likely be extended further with Georgia's cases of COVID-19 continuing to rise. 

"The Judicial COVID-19 Task Force is developing policies, procedures, and templates to allow the safe resumption of jury trials and grand jury proceedings,” the order reads. “These materials should be available in July 2020, but it is unlikely that any jury proceedings will begin until August or later.” That said, if the Supreme Court doesn’t think it’s safe to have court hearings, why would it be safe to administer an exam with over 1000 people in one confined area?

In light of the continued impact of COVID-19, we strongly and urgently request that the Georgia Bar Admissions, specifically Director of Admissions Heidi M. Faenza, consider all other alternative measures instead of an in-person exam administration.

These measures include, but are not limited to the following:

1. Online administration of the exam for the September 2020 date (similar to the administration being offered in Florida, Michigan and Maryland); 

2. Diploma privilege opportunities extended (similar to those being offered to law grads here in Georgia already as well as Utah and Washington state).

With close to 70 days to go until the exam is scheduled to be administered, we urge the Georgia Bar Admissions and Georgia Supreme Court to quickly and effectively enact further alternative means to bar licensure instead of an in-person September exam administration. For the health and safety of its thousands of examinees and the families and communities of the examinees, this must be done as soon as possible.

**UPDATE** July 7, 2020.

Georgia surpassed another milestone with more than 100,000 coronavirus cases.
The Georgia Department of Public Health is currently reporting 100,470 cases and 2,899 deaths as of 3 p.m. Tuesday. That is an increase of 3,406 cases and 21 new deaths since Monday.

Georgia becomes the ninth state to pass the 100,000 case mark, joining New York, California, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts and Arizona.

Metro Atlanta, and all of Georgia, remain under a Public Health State of Emergency through August 11.

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If you would like to reach out to the members of the Georgia Bar Admissions, Georgia Bar Executive Staff or the Georgia Supreme Court Public Relations directly, their email addresses are listed below.

Heidi M. Faenza, Director of Georgia Bar Admissions-  FaenzaH@gasupreme.us; Faenza4@comcast.net

Rebecca Mick, Assistant Director of Georgia Bar Admissions- mickr@gasupreme.us

Sharon L. Bryant,  Chief Operating Officer of the Georgia Bar-  sharonb@gabar.org

Jeff Davis, Executive Director of the Georgia Bar- jeffd@gabar.org

Paula Frederick, General Counsel of the Georgia Bar- paulaf@gabar.org

Stephanie Wilson, Director of Georgia Young Lawyer Division- stephaniew@gabar.org

Jane Hansen, Public Information Officer for the Georgia Supreme Court-  hansenj@gasupreme.us