The Hawaii Supreme Court has issued an order extending the deadline for bar applicants to choose to defer taking the exam to a future date with no additional application fee, or pursue a provisional license good through July 1, 2022.

The original deadline to defer or apply for a provisional license was July 28. The bar applicants now have until September 9 — the first day of the Hawaii State Bar Exam – to make a choice.  The Court says it extended the date because of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases on O’ahu.  As of Sunday, Aug. 28, there were more than 5,000 people on O’ahu with active cases of COVID-19.

Currently, there are 120 applicants who have chosen to take the written exam using their laptops. The exam will be administered September 9-10 at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu in a 59,000-square-foot exhibition hall. Each applicant will be seated alone at an eight-foot table, with at least 10 feet between each table.

The court’s order includes an attachment that was provided to all applicants in early August, detailing information about the numerous safety precautions being taken to protect the health of the bar applicants, as well as those administering the exam.

For more information, contact the Communications and Community Relations Office at 808-539-4909 or via email at pao@courts.hawaii.gov.