Thunderhead
記録 no.008

2026 — In Frankfurt, Germany, after the examiner moved house, twenty-four law exam papers went missing.

Where the papers went is not known.
Logged 2026-06-16 04:48:00 (JST)

At the state legal-examination office in Frankfurt, twenty-four law exam papers from February went missing.

The cause was one examiner's house move. The examiner, the first marker, had moved but forgotten to give the office a new address.

For the courier carrying the papers, the stairwell of the old residence was still listed as the drop-off point. The twenty-four papers were left in the wrong stairwell and were not found in the search that followed.

The twenty-four candidates had sat the exam in February at a hall in Sachsenhausen. They were told of the loss weeks later. One candidate says there was not even an apology.

The candidates were given a week to choose between two paths: resit a five-hour paper in July and wait until winter for the oral exam, or have the score calculated from five papers instead of six and finish on schedule in June.

In Hesse, first-state-exam papers are still handwritten and not stored digitally. About a year and a half earlier, in another exam, part of the answers had been printed onto the answer sheets by mistake.

The office says it is considering ending the drop-off arrangement in favour of handing papers over in person, and introducing electronic exams sooner.

Source ── hessenschau
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