Do all law schools allow extra time for people who supposedly have ADD?

[Jumboshrimps]

I am shocked to some of the posts that deny the existance of ADD.  Please open your mind a little and consider the following:

I was a police officer headed for law school when I was wounded in the head by a drug crazed felon.  My traumatic Brain Injury left be with ADD ADHD or what ever they want to call it.  It's real and a permanent life sentence to attention drugs. (Rx like Ritalin)

Yes, they gave me a little more time for the LSAT and schools have to recognize it under ADA. It requires more than a letter from 1 doctor.  Some of you elitists ought to consider what living with a disability is like!  Low pension, chronic pain, government BS, medical issues, and living in a world designed for someone else.

Consider that my life is a fraction of what it was and the descrimination is VERY real!  People look at you and see no wheelchair or obvious missing limbs and make assumptions.  From assuptions its not to far to get to that unfair "special treatment" argument - Yes, law school is hard but I would trade my TBI with any of you.  It doesn't level the playing field nor does it provide any unfair advantages.  ADA provides a needed opportunity for those are not as fortunate or who have sacrificed for others!

Hold on a second. Are you saying that you were attacked by a crazy felon who gave you ADD, and that has made your life more difficult? Or are you saying that you came away with ADD and a bunch of other problems? I've never heard of attack-induced ADD.

[kilroy55]

My wife has ADD.  Diagnosed when she was a kid.  I was telling her about this, and she read it.  Her opinion was it wouldn't help her.  More time would only distract her move, and cause her to lose focus.  She said with medication she had no problems dealing with school.  So, for those of you with ADD, why do you need extra time if medication is available for you to take?

[StevePirates]

Hi, I have pretty severe ADD, yay my cat's on the couch.  Basically, for me, the experience is that my "inner-monologue" filter doesn't work as well as everyone else.  Mine is not such a severe case that... oohhh pretty bird... I can't focus ever, but without medication the scholastic process is a nightmare for me.  I have a really hard time paying attention (ten hut two three four, about face) during class (lower, middle and rich class alike), I graduated both high school and college with below a 3.0, thank god for ritalin and standardized tests.  1480 on the SAT got me to college, 167 on the LSAT got me into law school.   

I hope that the last paragraph seemed a bit jumbled and maybe was slightly annoying to read, like a bee in your eye sockets, because those irrelevant stupid puns and side comments get stuck in my head a lot.  It is annoying to get distracted, and then fixated on the distraction so easily.  Personally, throughout my undergraduate studies, I've never asked for extra time, I didn't ask for extra time on the LSAT either.  I think that life is competitive, and that if you've got a disability, the playing field should not be leveled for you.  I mean, hell, the PGA won't let me tee off from 50 yards just because I had shoulder surgery at 17 (jumping out of trees is a fun afternoon).  But then again, I don't have it as bad as some people, and thankfully, I am fairly smart.

ADD with no time limit meant that I finished each section of the LSAT with about 10 seconds to spare, and on some of my logic game questions, I doodled a little in the diagrams.  Couldn't really help myself, it was stupid, and probably caused me to rush at the end, and score below what I could have with more time.  But, the reality is that extra time would not give me much of an advantage, it would just give me more time to scribble or black out the center of my "o"s.  I don't know why I do that either, I just get distracted.

Kids faking ADD to get extra time is crappy, and I think that it is overdiagnosed these days, but it does exist (even if in fewer people than the doctors say).  I think that doubling the time is not good policy, but an extra half hour or so would be nice.   Oh, and a lot of ADD folks have more problems with it when they are anxious.  So, for me, most days of the year it's just a mild eccentricity.  I always stop to smell the roses, because they're there.  But on test day, my mind starts cycling through all sorts of ridiculous pointless and repetitive thoughts.  But for me, and people like me, ADD isn't about getting distracted, it's about getting fixated ON the distraction.  For you guys, in high school did you ever get so wrapped up in checking out a cute girl in a revealing outfit that you stopped listening to your teacher?  ADD's like that, except it's thoughts of pandas and how to brew a better barleywine, and hey that's a nice pen.  It's not the distraction, it's the fixation.  At least, for me it is.


As for the posters saying that "you don't get extra time in life"  That's not a very apt analogy.  Briefs and memos are rarely due in three hours.  And people like myself often take work home.  Tests are an artificial form of evaluating knowledge and ability.  However, people with severe ADD should certainly think twice about getting into a litigation setting where they may have to go to Court.  Court certainly waits for no ones nervous ticks and idiosyncrasies.

[jacy85]

As for the posters saying that "you don't get extra time in life"  That's not a very apt analogy.  Briefs and memos are rarely due in three hours.  And people like myself often take work home.  Tests are an artificial form of evaluating knowledge and ability.  However, people with severe ADD should certainly think twice about getting into a litigation setting where they may have to go to Court.  Court certainly waits for no ones nervous ticks and idiosyncrasies.

Briefs and motions may not be due in 3 hours, but when the partner you're working for schedules a last minute conference with a client and asks you to research and write something up for that meeting, you get no extra time.  Life as a lawyer isn't necessarily about filing briefs; its about meeting deadlines set by distracted and/or inconsiderate partners who believe its your job in life to serve their every whim.

[StevePirates]

As for the posters saying that "you don't get extra time in life"  That's not a very apt analogy.  Briefs and memos are rarely due in three hours.  And people like myself often take work home.  Tests are an artificial form of evaluating knowledge and ability.  However, people with severe ADD should certainly think twice about getting into a litigation setting where they may have to go to Court.  Court certainly waits for no ones nervous ticks and idiosyncrasies.

Briefs and motions may not be due in 3 hours, but when the partner you're working for schedules a last minute conference with a client and asks you to research and write something up for that meeting, you get no extra time.  Life as a lawyer isn't necessarily about filing briefs; its about meeting deadlines set by distracted and/or inconsiderate partners who believe its your job in life to serve their every whim.

Very true for those seeking an entry into corporate law or biglaw.  For the rest of us, not so much.  But if you want to be at one of those large 2500 hour a year firms, yeah, deadlines in a hurry definitely exist.  Which is why I'd recommend that any ADD law student avoid those career tracks like the plague.  But there are legal careers that don't involve such harsh deadlines.

[blackpowerman]

ADD and ADHD is a shamrocket launched by f-ing capitalist medical fields to 1) make more money and 2) make more money.

everyone has f-ing add!!!!

[verbal]

Their isnt  person on this discussion board who couldnt go and be diagnosed with ADD or ADHD tomorrow. Their is no debate about this. In states like california doctors advertise as ADD and HD diagnosers in the phone book. I have never met a person who aderal didnt help studying. Given all of this information it would be insane to allow people who have been diagnosed with ADD/HD to have extra time on an exam. I am pretty sure my school doesnt do this but if i found out thatt they did i would try to do something about it.

[StevePirates]

I definitely agree that ADD is over-diagnosed.  Especially in largely urban states like California.  But just because it's over-diagnosed doesn't mean that it doesn't exists.  I figure about 1/10 people diagnosed actually have it.  The rest just wanna take legal speed.  That's in no way a scientific evaluation, just based on my experience with people in college.

[LegalMatters]

I don't have ADD/ADHD but I've had friends who do. They were medicated, which went a long way to help them graduate from college. I have a hard time sitting still for long periods of time unless I'm being intellectually engaged. My friends with ADD, most of them much brighter than I am, really have a hard time focusing no matter how stimulated they are. They also had to develop thick skins because of snarky comments made by people about their disability.

But, I think it's overdiagnosed. Any kid who can't sit still in class for 30-40 minutes is red flagged for possible ADD. I'd be amazed if I ever met any six-year-old kid who could sit still for that long, or not find their mind wandering. It's the pill culture where there's a pill to fix everything, so if a child doesn't fall into the norms a teacher expects, the child must need medication to make him behave like the others. I guess it's because so many kids are medicated now that a normal child appears to have a learning disability.

[vaplaugh]

How do you find out the number of students at your school that get extra time due to learning disabilities?