Chuck Newton: An iPhone App To Take On BarBri

Are we starting to see a crack and maybe the eventually crumbling of BarBri in terms of bar preparation?

I hope so. I thought it was too expensive when I took the bar exam in the 80s and I especially think it is too expensive now. We pay the ransom and go broke because we all feel we need some organized assistance in getting ready for the hardest test we will every take, but like sub-prime lenders, prescription drug companies, or vulture funds, BarBri seems a little too eager to take advantage of our fears.

Some law schools provide BarBri or other prep courses as the cost of education. Even though law school rankings do not much care if you pass the bar, some law schools still see bar passage rates as a plus. Most law schools do not provide this service, however.

According to TechCrunch, now comes BarMax. Although it is the most expensive iPhone App at $999.99, it is a whole lot less than BarBri at between $3,000.00 an $4,000.00. And, although BarBri has an iPhone app, it is included in its much larger price.

The problems with BarMax presently? It does not appear available in the Android marketplace, which assumes all law students have an iPhone, which they do not. Also, BarMax is presently only available for the California Bar. Although by the end of 2010 they expect to have the App available in six other of the most popular states.

BarMax was developed by Mike Ghaffary, who is the director of business development at TrialPay. He came up with the idea after BarBri charged him $4,000 and then essentially sent him an iPod with audio notes on it. This caused him to bring iPhone app developers and Harvard Law grads together to create this app.

Let us hope that BarMax is all that it is cracked up to be and that BarBri finally feels challenged.