We received this communication from the Ohio Supreme Court Office of Bar Admissions. I’ve simply copied and pasted the message we received.
The Supreme Court of Ohio has made some preliminary changes related to applications to sit for the July Bar Examination, which are due April 1st, in light of the Coronavirus. The following has been decided:
- The deadline for submission of bar applications for the July Bar Exam, as contained in Gov.Bar R. I, Section 3(A), is extended from April 1, 2020 to April 15, 2020. We will assess the situation again when the new deadline approaches and I may be asking the Chief Justice to approve another extension to May 1st;
- Currently, application fees are payable by money order or cashier’s check, and we will now also accept payment by personal check. This can be done on-line from almost all checking accounts. I realize that checks ordered online payable to the Supreme Court of Ohio will be mailed separately and directly from the bank to us. If an applicant is paying by this method, they need to make a note on their application to let us know so that we do not send back their application for lack of payment and to enable us to keep track of it. They also need to make notations with their application so that we can match the check to the applicant when we receive it (or some banks let them put information in when ordering the check that are included with the check). If they are doing a traditional “paper check” from an old-fashioned checkbook, it must be included with the application;
- The notary requirements for the bar application documents is not being waived at this time; however, the Office will accept the applications as timely, with the supplemental character questionnaire and the applicant affidavit, signed by the applicant with the understanding that an applicant will not be approved to sit for an exam or be admitted without supplementing their application with the notarized documents. To be clear, the notary requirement is not waived, but we will allow it to be supplemented later;
- We will address other concerns on a case-by-case basis based upon a particular applicant’s situation.
The Bar Admissions Office has limited staff but is reviewing and responding to emails. The best way to get a question answered is by emailing: baradmissions@sc.ohio.gov.