Coronavirus Resources: MCLE Changes and Updates
Below are changes to Mandatory Continuing Legal Education.
04/02/2020: For the 2019-2020 educational year, extends the MCLE compliance and affidavit filing deadlines to December 30, 2020. Any applicable delinquency fee pursuant to Rule 45(d), Arizona Rules of the Supreme Court, will not begin to accrue until after December 30, 2020. The deadlines for the 2020-2021 educational year are unchanged.
04/16/2020: Extends the final deadline for MCLE compliance from June 30 to September 30, 2020 for licensees in Compliance Group 3
03/24/2020: The Rules Committee of the Superior Court suspended Sec. 2-27A prescribing the requirements for MCLE.
03/19/2020: For lawyers who failed to complete CLE for the compliance year ending December 31, 2019, waives the requirement that at least 12 of the required 24 hours be earned by attending in person and sets dates for verifying the transcript, completing a deficiency plan, and reporting completion of the plan. Under a subsequent order the requirement that at least 12 of the 24 CLE credit hours must be earned by attending in person, live CLE approved courses is waived for the two year periods ending December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2021. All 24 CLE credit hours for those two-year periods may be satisfied by approved courses that do not require an in-person, live appearance.
The deadlines for members scheduled to report their three-year cycle CLE in February, March, April, May, June and July 2020 have been extended to August 31, 2020.
03/10/2020: Continuing through March 31, 2020, allows lawyers to earn all or any portion of the required 12 hours through self-study, in-house, or distance-learning continuing legal education activities under Regulations 8(e) and (15), so long as those activities otherwise satisfy the requirements of those Regulations. The State Bar of Georgia advises that the March 31 deadline for 2019 hours has been extended to April 30, 2020.
04/20/2020: Provides lawyers with last names beginning A-M in the 2018-2020 reporting period the option to secure a no-cost, three-month extension to complete those credits. A lawyer secures that extension by submitting an online report to the MCLE Board no later than July 31, 2020. For lawyers who do not complete their credits by June 30, 2020, they will report “Not Yet Complied” to the MCLE Board online at www.mcleboard.org by July 31, 2020 to secure the three-month extension at no cost. No reason for the extension is needed. Those lawyers then have until September 30, 2020 to complete their credits and report compliance to the MCLE Board.
03/31/2020: Waives the credit-hour limitations on distance education for lawyers, judges, and State Level Judicial Officers whose three-year educational period ends on December 31, 2020. All other lawyers and judges whose educational periods expire on or before December 31, 2022, may obtain no more than 24 hours of distance education; all other State Level Judicial Officers whose educational period expires on or before December 31, 2022, may obtain no more than 36 hours by distance education.
03/16/2020: Removes the six-hour cap on unmoderated CLE set forth in Rule 41.3(3).
04/08/2020: For the July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020 compliance period, any lawyer not able to meet the CLE credit hours requirement during that period will be automatically granted an extension to September 30, 2020 to meet the requirement. For the 2019-2020 compliance period, the credit hour limitation on prerecorded programming is waived. Prerecorded programs must still meet the guidelines required for accreditation.
03/31/2020: Moves the 2019-2020 CLE deadline to June 30, 2021, at which time lawyers must complete and certify 24 CLE credits, 4 of which must be ethics. Sets August 10, 2021 as the reporting deadline for the combined 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 educational years.
For lawyers who are delinquent for 2019 compliance only, the 4-hour limitation on self-study credits in Supreme Court Rule XXX, Rule 3(d) is suspended. Lawyers who are delinquent for 2019 may now complete their CLE requirement through unlimited online CLE credits. This only applies to lawyers who are currently delinquent for 2019 and who become compliant by earning and reporting credits by the May 15, 2020 deadline. In an April 28, 2020 order, the Supreme Court of Louisiana increased the limitation on self-study credits to 12.5 hours annually for the MCLE compliance year 2020.
Maine Order
03/18/2020: Suspends the in-person participation requirements for CLE. Participation may be by an electronic medium. The Board of Overseers of the Bar extended the CLE reporting deadline to May 1, 2020.
03/18/2020: Suspends the 15-credit limit on on-demand CLE courses for lawyers in category 3 due to report on August 31, 2020.
05/05/2020: Temporarily removes the limit on CLE credit earned though online programs. For the 2019-2020 reporting year, lawyers may complete their CLE obligations through online, webinars or live, in-person programs. Extends the completion deadline to September 30, 2020, and the reporting deadline to October 15, 2020. Newly admitted lawyers who are to complete the new lawyer program by July 31, 2020, may complete the program through online, webinars or live, in-person programs. The deadline for completing the new lawyer program is extended to September 30, 2020.
03/23/2020: Modifies the 2019-2020 reporting year to be for 15 months between July 1, 2019 and September 30, 2020. Extends the 2019-2020 reporting deadline to October 31, 2020.
Due to a backlog of CLE attendance information, no late fees will be assessed as long as credits are earned and reported on or before May 15, 2020.
For 2020, all 10 required credits may be obtained without attending live education. Annual reports that have no live education will be accepted when they contain at least 10 total credits including 2 that qualify as professional responsibility/ethics.
05/05/2020: A member who fails to file the certification of New Hampshire MCLE compliance on or before July 1, 2020, will receive an automatic extension to September 1, 2020, to file the certification. The deadline extension permits bar members to apply, document, and certify any New Hampshire MCLE credits earned prior to the end of the day on September 1, 2020, for the July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020 reporting year.
03/10/2020: Until further order, all 24 credit hours for the compliance period may be fulfilled through approved courses offered in alternative verifiable learning formats.
03/27/2020: Extends the date for imposing the $250.00 sanction for MCLE noncompliance to May 1, 2020, and the date for paying sanctions under Rule 18-301(H)(2) NMRA to May 31, 2020. Sets June 1, 2020 as the due date for the MCLE delinquency certification for the 2019 compliance year to be submitted under 8 Rule 18-301(F). Expands to 30 days the show cause period for orders to show cause issued under Rule 18-10 301(G) NMRA.
03/11/2020: Through June 30, 2020, allows newly admitted attorneys to participate in Skills CLE courses by individual participation (self-study) or group participation in the following live, nontraditional formats where questions are allowed during the program: webconference, teleconference, and videoconference.
03/23/2020: Suspends the 15-hour cap on self-study credits. Allows lawyers in Reporting Group 3, who report in 2020, to earn all or a portion of the required 45 credits through self-study. Three ethics CLE hours will still be required.
Waives the self-study cap for 2018/2019 late compliance and extends the deadline to complete all late compliance hours to June 29, 2020. Late compliance for those with a New Lawyers Training (NLT) requirement only, extends the deadline to complete all NLT hours to September 10, 2020 and allows all NLT to be completed by live webcasts.
03/19/2020: Extends the CLE compliance deadline applicable to Compliance Group 1 to from April 30, 2020 to August 31, 2020. All other 2020 annual compliance deadlines remain unchanged. An order issued on 04/15/2020 temporarily modifies Rule 108(e) so that all CLE credits to satisfy 2020 compliance deadlines may be obtained through completion of distance learning programs consistent with Pennsylvania’s CLE rules and regulations.
Extends the CLE compliance deadline to April 30, 2020.
04/30/2020: Relieves lawyers and judicial officers of the obligation to complete CLE requirements for the 2020 reporting year. CLE credits earned in the 2020 reporting year and excess credits set to expire in the 2020 reporting year may be used to satisfy the CLE requirements for the 2021 reporting year. Newly admitted attorneys required to file proof of attendance at the Bridge the Gap course by June 30, 2020 have until June 30, 2021 to file.
03/17/2020: Waives the 8-hour cap on CLE via online or telephonic courses. Lawyers may earn all or any portion of the required 14 hours of CLE credit for the 2019-2020 annual reporting year through online or telephonic programs.
03/13/2020: Suspends the 8-hour cap on distance learning. Lawyers may earn all or any portion of the CLE hours required for 2019 through approved distance learning completed through March 31, 2020.
03/23/2020: Grants an automatic 60-day extension to lawyers reaching their compliance deadlines in March, April, or May. Provides an automatic 60-day extension to lawyers who missed compliance deadlines in January or February. Provides an additional one-month extension to lawyers now subject to suspension for failing to comply with MCLE requirements in November or December.
Suspends all requirements for in-person CLE attendance for the remainder of the current reporting cycle, which ends on June 30, 2020. Lawyers required to report CLE compliance through this reporting cycle may complete all hours through webinars and self-study courses.
Emphasizes to newly admitted lawyers that any reasonable request for an extension of time to complete the first-year CLE requirement will be granted and reminds newly admitted attorneys that "live" programming includes non-recorded programming presented via electronic means, such as webinars and teleseminars.
04/14/2020: Extends the completion deadline for the 2020 MCLE requirement from October 31 to midnight EST December 31, 2020. CLE hours need to be reported no later than 4:45 p.m. EST February 15, 2021.
03/12/2020: For the 2018-2020 reporting period only, allows lawyers to earn all or any portion of the required 24 CLE credits through video, audio, correspondence, telephone seminars, computer-based training courses, or in-house instruction, so long as the courses otherwise satisfy the requirements of the CLE rules and regulations and are approved for CLE credit in West Virginia.
03/17/2020: Allows lawyers to claim up to 30 credits from repeated on-demand programs for the reporting period ending December 31, 2020. Repeated on-demand programs may not be used to satisfy the mandatory 3 legal ethics and professional responsibility credit hours.