Delaware Bar Exam: What to Expect

The Delaware Bar Exam is a two and a half day event that takes place during the last week of February and in the last week of July. To successfully pass this professional examination you will need to qualify for, apply for, prepare for, and sit for this exam. This article will cover how to qualify for, how the test is structured, and what to study in order to pass the Delaware Bar Exam.

HOW TO QUALIFY FOR THE DELAWARE BAR EXAM

The qualifications to sit for the Delaware Bar Exam are similar to most other states. You will need to be a graduate of an ABA approved law school with appropriate coursework and professional ethics courses completed. After meeting the educational requirements for the Delaware Bar Exam you will need to fill out and submit a complete application package to the Delaware Board of Examiners with the appropriate application and testing fees. You will also need to sit for the MPRE, the Multistate Professional Responsibilities Examination, and pass it with a score of at least 85.

You can request an application package or downloaded the materials from the Delaware Board of Bar Examiners website.

Board of Examiners
200 West Ninth Street
Suite 300-B
Wilmington, DE 19801
(302) 577-7038 Telephone Number
http://courts.state.de.us/bbe/

FORMAT OF THE EXAM

The exam, as mentioned earlier, will consist of two and a half days of testing. On the first day the candidate will take the essay section(s) of the Delaware Bar Exam. This section will consist of eight essay questions. The second day of the exam will be the half day. In the morning of the second day of the Delaware bar Exam the candidates will be required to take two Multistate Performance Exams. These tests will evaluate how well a candidate is at performing entry level legal tasks like preparing a brief and composing legal documents. On the third day of the Delaware Bar Exam the candidate will be required to take the Multistate Bar Exam. This exam consists of 200 multiple choice questions that cover general legal topics. To pass this exam a candidate needs to earn at least 14 out of 200 points with a weight of 60% given to the written section and the remaining portions counting for 40% of the overall score.

WHAT TO STUDY

The Multistate Bar Exam, as mentioned above is made up of 200 multiple choice questions. These questions will not cover how the topic are interpreted in Washington, D.C., but will instead cover their general application in the United States. The topics that will be covered in this section include:

1. Constitutional Law
2. Contracts and Sales
3. Criminal Law and Procedures
4. Evidence
5. Real Property
6. Torts

The remaining sections of the Delaware Bar Exam will generally cover the following topics as they are interpreted in Delaware:

1. Administrative Law
2. Contracts
3. Agency
4. The Uniform Commercial Code
5. Equity
6. Business Associations
7. Conflicts of Laws
8. Evidence
9. Torts
10. Wills, Trusts, and Estates
11. Family Law
12. Real and Personal Property
13. Civil Procedures
14. Criminal Procedures
15. Constitutional Law
16. Criminal Law
17. Legal Ethics
18. Tax Law

To help you study for the essay portions of this exam the state of Delaware has provided its candidates with access to past Bar Examination Questions and answers. They can be found at http://coutrs.delaware.gov, with the 2005 questions located at http://courts.delaware.gov/bbe/2005.htm.

Other resources that you might find helpful include:

1. The Uniform Commercial Code found at http://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/ucc.table.html.
2. Delaware’s Rules of Evidence can be downloaded from http://courts.delaware.gov/Rules/?uniform_rules.pdf.
3. Delaware’s Rules of Professional Conduct can be found at http://courts.delaware.gov/ Rules/?FinalDLRPCclean.pdf.
4. Delaware’s Rules of Civil Procedures can be found at http://courts.delaware.gov/Rules/?civil_procedure.pdf.
5. Delaware’s Rules of Criminal Procedures can be found at courts.delaware.gov/Rules/?criminal_procedure.pdf