California Bar lawsuit will be tried under bifurcated proceedings

We have reached an agreement with the California State Bar to bifurcate the issues into two separate trial stages. The most novel and purely legal issues in the case, related to whether the State Bar has an obligation to provide information to a member of the public, will be heard during the first phase of trial. If the court establishes a right to public inspection of bar exam data, then the residual issues including, most importantly, the adequacy of our privacy protocols, will be litigated in the second phase of trial. This bifurcation is advantageous for all parties because it allows the most uncertain legal issues to be determined before the more factually-intensive issues are tried.