Requires the state board of law examiners to establish protocols for addressing emergencies that occur during the administration of the bar examination, and to provide testing accommodations for persons who have applied for examination for admission to practice and are the subject of, or a witness to, or are affected by the emergency.
S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
8984
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
I N A S S E M B L Y
August 13, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BICHOTTE HERMELYN -- read once and referred to
the Committee on Judiciary
AN ACT to amend the judiciary law, in relation to enacting the "Clock
Should Stop Act"
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Clock
Should Stop Act".
§ 2. Legislative intent. On Wednesday, July 30, 2025, a young woman
taking the New York State bar exam at a location at Hofstra University
suddenly suffered an apparent heart attack shortly before the scheduled
lunch break. The woman collapsed onto the floor, suffered impaired
breathing, and turned blue. Emergency help was summoned and subsequent-
ly, Hofstra Public Safety officers provided life-saving emergency care
to the woman, including CPR and defibrillation, until paramedics arrived
and transported the woman to a nearby hospital. It has been reported
that there was a delay in seeking assistance for the young woman.
Multiple other bar examination takers were present during the inci-
dent. Despite the occurrence of this medical emergency, the morning
session of the bar examination was not halted. The examination was
allowed to continue to the conclusion of the morning session, at which
time the other examination-takers were allowed to leave the room. These
same individuals were required to return to the scene of the emergency
an hour later and complete the afternoon session of the examination.
The legislature finds that there is a need to establish protocols to
address medical or other emergencies that occur during the adminis-
tration of the New York State bar examination. These protocols should
address measures taken to render assistance to an injured or ill person,
and address other conditions of the emergency, as well as measures to
provide testing accommodations to other examination-takers affected by
the emergency.
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13598-03-5
Open Legislation is a forum for New York State legislation. All comments are subject to review and community moderation is encouraged.
Comments deemed off-topic, commercial, campaign-related, self-promotional; or that contain profanity, hate or toxic speech; or that link to sites outside of the nysenate.gov domain are not permitted, and will not be published. Attempts to intimidate and silence contributors or deliberately deceive the public, including excessive or extraneous posting/posts, or coordinated activity, are prohibited and may result in the temporary or permanent banning of the user. Comment moderation is generally performed Monday through Friday. By contributing or voting you agree to the Terms of Participation and verify you are over 13.
Create an account. An account allows you to sign petitions with a single click, officially support or oppose key legislation, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.