A technical meltdown has thrown the legal careers of hundreds of aspiring lawyers in Washington state into uncertainty. After the July bar exam was canceled because of a major equipment failure at the Yakima testing site, the state's three accredited law schools urged the Washington Supreme Court to grant emergency diploma privileges allowing affected graduates to practice without retaking the exam. They argue that a September retest would not undo the financial costs, stress and delayed careers caused by the disruption, while also calling for a public review of what went wrong. Sometimes the toughest test isn't the exam itself-it's whether the system can be trusted.