Becoming a lawyer in Minnesota is about to become a slightly spendier proposition.
The Minnesota Supreme Court Monday approved a petition by the state Board of Law Examiners regarding fees related to admission to the state bar, effective Jan. 1.
For new lawyers, the cost of taking the bar exam will be $500, up from $400; for applicants missing the filing deadline, the cost rises from $550 to $650. For lawyers certified in other states and wishing to take the Minnesota bar exam, those fees rise $200 to $950 ($1,100 for late filers).
Also going up are the cost of repeat examinations, and applications for admission without examination. There is good news, though: If you withdraw your application for the bar exam in time, your partial refund rises from $125 to $150.
The increase is understandable, given the dramatic rise in exam applicants recently -- a record 906 this past July. With all the talk about a glut of new lawyers and the shrinking market for attorneys, maybe the fee increases will weed out a handful of folks who were on the fence about practicing law.
For the rest, it might mean grinding out a few extra billable hours in their first year of practice to make up the difference.
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1 comment:
After spending in the range of $100,000 for three years of law school, an extra $100 is hardly enough to stop people from taking the bar exam.
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