The LSAC Qualified Professional Form: Signers, Contents, and Denials

The LSAC Qualified Professional Form is a five-page document that a licensed clinician completes to verify your disability and recommend specific LSAT accommodations. You download the current version from LSAC’s document library, have the professional fill it out and sign it, and upload it through JD Services as part of your accommodation request package.¹ The form travels with a separate Candidate Form that you write yourself, and the whole package must be in before the registration deadline for your chosen LSAT date.²

Who Can Sign the Form

LSAC defines a qualified professional as someone licensed or properly credentialed with expertise in the specific disability you’re citing.¹ Specialty has to match condition. For ADHD, that means a psychiatrist, clinical psychologist, or neuropsychologist who actually evaluated you, not a general practitioner who has never assessed your attention or cognition. Documentation from a professional without relevant expertise is one of the most common reasons LSAC denies requests.³

The license must be active and in good standing. The form asks for the professional’s name, title, license or certification number, and full mailing address, plus a brief statement of qualifications explaining their training and experience with your type of disability.¹ Every field needs to be complete; LSAC uses the information to verify credentials.

Recency matters too. For ADHD, psychological, or learning disabilities, the evaluation can’t be more than five years old at the time of submission. For physical or medical disabilities, it can’t have been conducted before you turned 13.³ If your records are older, schedule a new evaluation before asking anyone to complete the form.

What’s Inside the Form

The form has five pages covering the professional’s credentials, your diagnosis, recommended accommodations for the LSAT multiple-choice sections, recommended accommodations for Argumentative Writing, and a final written statement tying it all together.¹

Diagnosis

Your professional provides the specific diagnosis using DSM-5-TR or ICD-10-CM codes.⁴ If you have multiple diagnoses, all of them go on the form. They also list the date of the original diagnosis, the date they last examined you, and whether the disability is permanent or temporary. For a temporary condition, they give an expected end date.

Accommodation Checkboxes

Pages three and four are the recommendation pages, one for multiple choice and one for Argumentative Writing. Options include:

Additional test time at 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, or a custom amount
Breaks after each section, or stop/start breaks as needed
Assistive technology such as JAWS, ZoomText, or Dragon
A human reader or amanuensis (scribe)
Paper-and-pencil format in regular print, large print, with an alternate answer sheet, or with answers marked in the test book
Other items like unlimited scratch paper, writing utensils, non-water beverages, diabetic supplies, or braille

Every box checked has to tie back to the functional limitations the professional describes. Generic recommendations with no clinical reasoning behind them are a red flag for reviewers.¹

Written Statement

The last page is the one that gets the hardest look. The professional marks which accommodation category applies (1, 2, or 3) and writes a narrative describing your current level of functioning, how the disability affects test-taking, and why each requested accommodation is necessary for you to access the LSAT fairly.¹ A short note saying “this student has ADHD and needs extra time,” without objective evidence or a clear link to functional limitations, will almost certainly be rejected.

Three signature lines run through the form: one after the diagnosis section, one after the multiple-choice accommodations, and one after the Argumentative Writing accommodations. Each gets signed and dated.

Which Category You’re In

LSAC sorts requests into three categories, and the category determines how much documentation you need. Figure out yours before your professional starts the form.²

Category 1 covers non-extended-time requests not captured elsewhere, like a separate testing room, extra between-section breaks, or permission to bring diabetic supplies. You need the Candidate Form plus one piece of supporting evidence: either records of prior accommodations (IEP, Section 504 Plan, college disability office records) or the Qualified Professional Form.
Category 2 covers 50% extended time (or 100% for severe visual impairments), a human reader, or an amanuensis. Same baseline requirements, but the professional’s documentation must include a reasonable explanation for why these specific accommodations are necessary on the LSAT.
Category 3 is “exceptional needs”: more than 50% additional time, paper-and-pencil format, stop/start breaks exceeding 60 minutes, testing over multiple days, or modality exceptions. The professional has to supply an objective rationale based on history and evidence.

For Categories 1 and 2, prior academic accommodation records can stand in for the Qualified Professional Form. Category 3 requests almost always require direct professional documentation with detailed clinical reasoning.²

Submitting Through JD Services

Register for a specific LSAT date first; LSAC won’t open the accommodation request until you do. Then log into JD Services and find “Request or Modify Accommodations” under the LSAT section of your account menu.⁵ Step 2 of the online flow is the Candidate Form itself, so you complete that in the portal rather than as a separate upload.

At the document upload stage, attach the signed Qualified Professional Form along with any other supporting records. LSAC accepts jpg, gif, png, pdf, doc, docx, rtf, htm, html, and txt files up to 10 MB each. Everything has to be legible and in English; foreign-language records need an official translation. Don’t upload the same document twice.⁶ You can save your progress and come back, but the whole package has to be in before registration closes.

The accommodation deadline is the registration deadline for that LSAT administration. No exceptions. Late requests aren’t deferred to the next test; they aren’t reviewed at all.⁷ Submit well in advance. If a reviewer flags something missing, you need time to fix it.

Why Requests Get Denied

LSAC publishes the recurring reasons documentation falls short. Most are preventable if your professional knows what reviewers look for:³

No evidence of a disability at all: nothing from a qualified professional, no record of prior standardized-test accommodations.
Wrong type of professional: the signer isn’t licensed or credentialed in the area of the disability.
Weak Candidate Form statement that doesn’t offer a disability-related reason for the specific accommodations requested.
Outdated evaluation: more than five years old for ADHD, psychological, or learning disabilities; conducted before age 13 for physical or medical conditions.
Illegible scans or foreign-language documents without an official translation.
Insufficient justification for Category 3 exceptional needs, with no objective rationale grounded in clinical history.

The common thread is vagueness. A letter that states a diagnosis without explaining how it limits your ability to read, concentrate, or work under timed conditions won’t survive review.

If LSAC Denies Part or All of the Request

LSAC posts a decision letter in your JD Services account explaining the rationale.⁷ The appeal windows are short. You have two business days from the posting to notify LSAC that you intend to appeal, and five calendar days from the posting to submit additional documentation. Miss either, and the appeal closes.

LSAC aims to decide appeals within one week of receiving the submission, subject to unforeseen circumstances. If the denial was about a documentation gap (an outdated evaluation, a missing clinical rationale), the appeal is your opportunity to supply what was missing. Keeping your qualified professional on standby to produce a supplemental letter inside that five-day window often decides whether you test on your scheduled date.

When You May Not Need the Form

If you were previously approved for accommodations on the LSAT or LSAT-Flex, you’re automatically approved for the same or substantially similar accommodations on your next registration, with no new documentation. The approval letter appears on your LSAT Status page in JD Services within a week of registering.⁸ Exceptions apply: accommodations granted for temporary conditions don’t carry forward, LSAC may not have records if your last registration was more than five years ago, and starting with the August 2025 LSAT, paper-and-pencil format and modality exceptions require a new Category 3 request even if previously approved.

Prior accommodations on the SAT, ACT, GRE, GMAT, DAT, or MCAT can also qualify you for equivalent LSAT accommodations without the Qualified Professional Form. You submit a letter from the other test sponsor detailing the specific accommodations you received, through JD Services, by the accommodation deadline. This pathway covers common accommodations like extended time, stop-the-clock breaks, separate rooms, and large-print materials. It does not cover requests that would require testing over multiple days.⁸

1
Law School Admission Council. Qualified Professional Form (PDF)
2
Law School Admission Council. Documentation Requirements
3
Law School Admission Council. Reasons Documentation Is Deemed Insufficient by LSAC
4
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR)
5
LSAC LawHub. How to Request Accommodations on the LSAT
6
Law School Admission Council. How to Request Accommodations on the LSAT
7
Law School Admission Council. LSAC Policy on Accommodations for Test Takers with Disabilities
8
LSAC LawHub. Policy on Prior Testing Accommodations