California bar examination.

Assembly Member Dixon's legislation would require the State Bar of California to complete and submit a detailed cost-benefit analysis before making any changes to the state bar examination. The analysis must be transmitted to both the California Supreme Court and Legislature for review.

The mandated analysis would need to evaluate several key factors: implementation costs and potential savings, technological requirements for administering the exam, projected testing locations, necessary staffing levels, and impacts on examinees and law schools. The State Bar would also need to assess whether adopting a uniform examination, such as the National Conference of Bar Examiners' Uniform Bar Examination, could increase administrative efficiency or reduce costs.

The bill maintains existing requirements that the examining committee provide two years' notice before making substantial modifications to exam preparation requirements. It also adds a new provision requiring the examining committee to communicate and coordinate with the Law School Council on examination matters. The legislation preserves the State Bar's ability to use scaling methods to maintain consistent examination difficulty from year to year.