Laptops and the NJ Bar

With rare exceptions, longhand was the only option for those who took the NJ Bar exam until last July [2005], when the New Jersey Board of Bar Examiners began a pilot program to test laptop use. For that exam, the board set aside 200 spaces and not all were taken. The same thing happened in February.

Now, the board has been overrun by the advance guard of a generation of test takers weaned from blue books to laptops by their technology-minded law schools.

"We really didn't have an idea what to expect since in our prior two exams we didn't exceed our capacity," says Laura Brooks, assistant secretary to the board. "We decided to expand because that was the next step for us. We didn't think that it would jump that incrementally, but it did."

There were 300 applicants who wanted laptop space, but did not get it.