Law School Admission Council Settles Disability Lawsuit

LSAC, the organization that administers the law school admission test (LSAT) has agreed to a settlement on a claim that it failed to accommodate exam takers with disabilities. A class action lawsuit was initiated by a group of students, including students with learning disabilities and/or ADHD, who had been denied accommodations for various reasons.

The lawsuit alleged that LSAC routinely denied accommodation requests, even in cases where applicants have submitted proper paperwork and demonstrated a history of testing accommodations. The US Justice Department had intervention status in the case, which argued that students were denied their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Under the terms of the agreement, LSAC will pay $7.73 million to compensate the more than 6,000 individuals who over the past five years had requested accommodations such as extra time. One litigant with dyslexia was allegedly denied extra time despite extensive documentation of the diagnosis and his long history of testing accommodations on exams, the SAT and other tests.

As part of the settlement agreement, LSAC will make it simpler and easier for students to get accommodations on the test.The council will also reform its policies and stop flagging LSAT scores for people who receive extended time—a practice the lawsuit alleged was discriminatory because it identified to law schools that a test taker had a disability.