Bar Failure Sues Over Jackhammer

Thu., Oct. 2, 1997

From Staff And Wire Reports

A would-be lawyer who nearly passed the Oregon State Bar exam is suing over a noisy jackhammer he says distracted him during the test.

Representing himself, Garrett Maass has asked the U.S. District Court to order the Oregon State Bar to give him a formal hearing on the circumstances of his narrow failure of the exam in 1994.

The bar has acknowledged the jackhammer noise and asked the state Supreme Court for advice. The court told the bar to recalculate the test scores and give complainants a chance to appeal.

But the bar said the recommendation was impossible to implement fairly, and the court consented, Maass said.

When the state bar refused to hear Maass’ appeal, he appealed to the state Supreme Court, which sided with the bar without holding a hearing. On Friday, he filed his federal lawsuit.

After graduating from the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College in 1994, Maass said he scored a 63.868 on the bar exam that year. A score of 65.000 was necessary to pass.

He took the test again in February 1997 and failed.

Unable to practice law, Maass has supported himself doing legal research and teaching law classes for about a year at Clark Community College in Vancouver, Wash.

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