SC launches online application site for 2020-2021 Bar exams
MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court on Thursday launched its online platform for applicants in the historic 2020-2021 Bar examinations, the first digital and localized licensure test for Philippine lawyers.
Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, 2020-2021 Bar chairperson, announced in Bar Bulletin No. 21 that the Bar Personalized Login Unified System (BAR PLUS) is now available and may be accessed here.
“BAR PLUS is a homegrown online application system through which prospective applicants for the November 2021 Bar Examinations will submit their verified petition, other required documents and information including proof of payment of the bar application fee,” Leonen added.
Examinees will file their applications digitally and through mail, and will only be required to personally appear in case of issues in their applications. Instructions and requirements for applicants may be read here.
As stated in the SC’s FAQs, document submissions to the Office of the Bar Confidant shall be through registered mail or any courier service. Drop-off boxes will also be put up at the Padre Faura Main Gate of the Supreme Court.
Application is deemed completed after payment of the fee. The Office of the Bar Confidant will release a list of bar candidates admitted, including those admitted conditionally, by the SC en banc.
Major changes in Bar exams
The Bar exams have historically been held in one venue — at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila in previous years — on the four Sundays of November, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the SC to postpone its conduct in 2020.
Bar chairperson Leonen then pushed for major changes in coming Bar examinations such as digitalizing its conduct and putting up several local testing sites across the country for applicants. So far, at least 16 local testing sites across the country have signed an agreement with the SC for the coming Bar exams.
In the FAQs, the high court said that all examinees, as a general rule, will take the Bar exams digitally, but “for justifiable reasons, the [SC en banc], may grant a formal written request to take a handwritten examination in a Court-designated venue in Metro Manila.”
Leonen, in February, explained that the Bar exams would also be graded by examiners digitally, which would allow subject matter experts outside the capital region to be tapped in a bid to make the assessing of the exams "even more inclusive."
Taking inclusivity a step further, the registration page on the BAR Plus website allows applicants to state their preferred pronouns, if any.
Applications may be filed from July 15 to September 15, but Leonen advised examinees to file theirs at the soonest possible time.
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