In the Matter of Chavis
Annotate this CaseIn the Matter of Antavis Chavis, the Supreme Court of Maryland ruled that a bar applicant diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) had met his burden to prove that he had a "disability" under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and that the testing accommodation he requested—50% additional time to take the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE)—was warranted. The court adopted a two-step test to determine whether a bar examination test accommodation request should be granted. First, the court must determine if the applicant meets the ADA definition of "disability." Second, the court must determine if the test accommodation requested by the applicant is "reasonable, consistent with the nature and purpose of the examination and necessitated by the applicant’s disability." The court observed that under the ADA and related federal regulations, the definition of disability should be broadly construed and that evidence of past test accommodations must be given considerable weight. The court sustained the applicant’s exceptions to the denial of his test accommodation request by the State Board of Law Examiners (SBLE), reversed the denial, and remanded the matter to the SBLE with instruction to grant the applicant’s test accommodation request.
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