California Bar exam: update and tips for the MBE

Posted on by May 19, 2019

For those of you who were following my struggle with the California Bar exam, previously chronicled here, an update: I have learned on Friday that I passed February 2019 California Bar exam!  (therefore, on my second attempt).

Which is just as well, because it caused such a nervous breakdown that I do not know whether I’d have been able to do it again. Please note it does NOT yet make me an attorney, as there are other issues left to resolve between me and the Bar.

Meanwhile for those who are interested or also taking the Bar in any US state, I have written and published some advice on taking the MBE – the multiple choice portion of any state’s Bar exam. These are just tips I developed and sort of used myself. Maybe someone will find them useful.

MBE advice

Hundreds of cases fail in “application date” conundrum following transition to online/Sopra Steria process

Posted on by May 1, 2019

As all of our government’s  best ideas, the “UKVAS” (actually, Sopra Steria) -led new application system, introduced universally from December and with which I once vowed not to have anything to do and yet here I am, had quickly turned from bad to disastrous, leading to complete chaos and confusion among applicants and  thousands of pounds in application fee losses (the latter being the aspect the Home office usually shrugs off as being just natural). When we all filled out applications by hand, the application date was the date of posting — old common law “postal rule” applied. When premium … Continue reading →

Home Office and Data Sharing – hit and miss, but mostly miss

Posted on by February 1, 2019

The new report by the Chief Inspector found here highlights, among many well-publicized failings of the hostile environments, some things I had no idea about that left me in complete shock (such as project BORTZ – government looking for illegal immigrants on little children’s school rolls and apparently using Social Services referrals under “safeguarding” guise as enforcement method – read on! pages 37-38 etc ). The new “migrant status database” that is supposed to replace the previously failed hostile environments methods that were based on the MRP (“refusal pool”, which had erroneously listed everyone with a refusal, without regard to refusals … Continue reading →