A Public Service Announcement

(That's supposed to be animated to display all the different things no one could supposedly have anticipated since Bush was elected. I guess resizing it turns off the animation? I dunno; just click it to see the better animated version.)

Posted 10:23 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | general politics

Ambivalent Question: Preparing for the Bar Exam

This week's Ambivalent Question® (at top right) asks: “Which bar review course will you (or did you) take?”

The poll lists various options, many of which I know nothing about. Those options include:

• Bar/Bri, an all-around bar review course available for every state. Offers video-taped lectures or self-study via recorded lectures on iPod. I believe in some places you can attend a lecture from a real-live person, too. Cost varies by state; I believe Montana is about the cheapest at $800, while NY, IL, and CA are among the most expensive at something like $2400.
• PMBR, a three or six day review focused only on the MBE (Multi-state Bar Exam). The MBE is “a six-hour, two-hundred question multiple-choice examination covering contracts, torts, constitutional law, criminal law, evidence, and real property.” PMBR claims it complements or supplements other review courses b/c they are focused on the law of a specific state, rather than on the larger legal principles tested on the MBE. Cost: $795 for the 6-day course, $395 for the 3-day (discounts for ABA/LSD members).
• BarPlus, which doesn't look like a review course after all; more like just a bunch of information about the bar exam? I'm not sure.
• MyBarPrep, an online review course for the MBE. Appears to be in direct competition with PMBR but it's online-only. Cost: $160.
• MicroMash MBE & Bar Review, a computer-based self-study course, this time from West Publishing. The cost for the MBE review is $795, and the cost for the Bar Review part varies from $1195 to $1495, depending on state. Only about 23 states are available. (And look! A free podcast about opening a law office!)
• The Study Group Personal Bar Review, offers a variety of study-at-home courses that focus on writing state essays, the MBE, and more. It looks like bar review courses start at about $1395 and go up from there.

As the poll mentions, if you are aware of or taking other options, please leave a comment below.

This poll question came circuitously via a link at Divine Angst from which I wandered over to unblague to catch up on “the other Kristine's” odyssey from evening law student, to law school graduate, to studying for the Feb. sitting of the MD bar, and finally taking the bar exam. She's now waiting for May 5th to learn that she passed so keep your fingers crossed for her!

Somewhere along the way, unblague linked to Brazen: Passing the MD Bar, a blog by and about a graduating 3L who is preparing for the bar exam w/out the assistance of Bar/Bri or any other commercial review course. I completely agree with and admire brazen's desire to defy the conventional wisdom and prove that the bar exam can be beat without shelling out another several thousand dollars in “education” after your education (law school). However, bar review courses have a pretty compelling argument, which is always like this: You've spent tens of thousands of dollars on your legal education, but all of that will be for naught if you don't pass the bar exam. Don't you think it would be smart to maximize your chances of passing the bar by taking our course?

Well, do you?

Related: The Bar Review Choice

Posted 09:31 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack | ambivalent questions bar exam

Westlaw By A Nose

The most recent Ambivalent Question® asked: “Do you prefer Lexis or Westlaw for your legal research?” After two weeks of voting, the final results were:

• 32.6% of respondents said “Weslaw is da bomb.”
• 27.9% said “Impeach Bush.”
• 25.6% said “Lexis rocks.”
• 11.6% said “They both suck. I prefer free online sources.”
• 2.3% (one person, I think) said “Neither. It's all about the books.”

Total votes: 43.

So Westlaw seems to hold a slight lead in your preferences. To no one's surprise, I am again in the minority here: I prefer Lexis b/c it's just so much faster in my experience, it doesn't force me to turn off pop-up blocking in my browser, and I've learned to find what I'm looking for with it. As others mentioned, Westlaw's drawbacks include its horrible design, frequent timeouts, poor behavior with tabs, and glacial performance—especially on anything less than the most recent browsers. At my internships and in my clinic where the computers are circa 1999, trying to bring up a case on Westlaw is just a joke. Plus, Westlaw is the 900-lb. gorilla in the legal research market, and I have a fairly deep-seated antipathy toward market bullies. For those of you who aren't aware, West owns all the page numbers for legal citation, meaning that its profits are basically assured by court rules all across the country which require citation to West reporters for all documents submitted to court. West also stole much of its online database from a taxpayer-created database of case law in the 1980s and I think it's pretty rotten of a corporation to steal from me like that. So West totally blows, as far as I'm concerned.

Given the choice, I actually use free online resources whenever possible. They're especially good for SCOTUS case law and are generally much faster than Wexis will ever be b/c you don't have to wade through all the click-tracking and fee-assessing code that bogs down those services.

Finally, I'm sad to say that the “Impeach Bush” vote seems to be shrinking from poll to poll. It's down from 28.6% in the cartoon poll, and 27.9% in the spying poll. This obviously may have something to do with the nature of the question, but it's disappointing, nonetheless.

Posted 08:30 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | ambivalent questions