22/01/2025
From Dean Rocky Dujunco:
Notes from Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier's Guidance for the 2025 Bar Exams. Delivered during the PALS Annual Convention. (Caveat, notes are mine. All errors are likewise mine.)
Bar Exam 2025
Candidates must have know-how to render competent legal service
Follows 2023 bar exam
- 3 days for bar exam / 6 subjects
- Digitalised and localised
SPJI - technologically adaptive
Exams to be checked by warm living bodies with compassionate hearts
No surprises. Only those included the syllabus will be asked.
Questions will be short and focused. Codal provisions and time tested doctrines
One question - one answer policy
Question is definite and requires definite answer. No answer to begin with “it depends”, must only be yes or no.
Each answer must be direct to the point.
Time tested format in answering.
1st - directly answer the question
2nd - legal basis (codal or jurisprudence)
3rd - application of basis to facts
Sample questions.
1. A and B got married while 14 and 16. A’s father challenged the validity due to minority. Rule on the validity of the marriage.
Answer: The marriage of A and B is void. Under the FC, the essential requisites of ____. Under the FC, parties must be at least 18. Since A and B are only ____, they do not have the legal capacity to get married hence void.
2. President involved in accident. President invoked immunity from suit. Victim stated president is being sued in personal capacity.
Answer: Victim is not correct. President may not be sued whether in official or personal capacity. AS the incumbent president, he is absolutely immune during his tenure from suit.
Questions will be short, direct to the point, calling for specific answers.
JALJ will be crafting the questions herself. Sourced from cases penned by her for the Supreme Court. Many have invested in buying the digests of her cases. Only from ponencias but not her dissents.
Even those who graduated from years ago will be confident in answering the bar exam questions.
300 cases (more or less) penned by JALJ.
Doctrines that have stood the test of time. Yung canonical.
- Immunity from suit
- Pater familias
- Did not stand the test of time: iron curtain rule
- Tan-Andal is not canonical.
Pag hindi canonical, wag na lang. Yung mga bago, huwag na muna. The idea is that even those who graduated 30 years ago should know the doctrines. But the students should know the codal provisions. JALJ will go back to the codal provisions. JALJ cases to be asked.
Please orient bar takers about the SPJI. Will be included in all 6 subjects. Reason: this early, we would want our future lawyers to be innovations and initiatives pursued by the SC, for efficiency, inclusivity, timely and fair justice. Example: new rule on filing of cases involving annulment or legal separation where the petitioner is an OFW.
2025 bar exams will be concise.
Not require examinees to cite specific law number and case title
Do not leave any question unanswered.
Law is founded on reason. In case of double, rely on common sense. Equity. Good faith. Good practices.
DO NOT WRITE PRAYERS AS ANSWERS. Baka maging marking pa yan.
The bar exam is not life threatening. At the end of the day, they will come out of the testing center alive. Remain calm. Only a calm mind produces correct answers.
Convince the examiner that you know what you are talking about. Gravest error is to be neither here nor there and to play safe and not give any clear answer. Convince the examiner that your answer is the correct answer. Do not hesitate. There must be logic and good reason.
When you are pursuing something really challenging, life teases us. For those who are not deciding to take the bar will use that as an excuse for not taking the bar. It happens to the everyone, so it’s our choice to go through it. No one is exempt from challenges. You have to remain whole.
For the people who are caring for and supporting you, wag niyong sungitan. Be in good vibes with the people around you. Good karma is digitalised. Always smile. Always see good things and the bright things in life. Ease the burden you are carrying. You are not alone.
The least JALJ wants is for you to me intimidated, dispirited, or discouraged. It is a mere test. It is a measure of your fitness to join the legal profession. It is a passable test.
Fear is just in the mind. Never let it cripple you.
Kindness comes a long way. What goes around, comes around. Never behave badly.
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