Attention All Lawyers Admitted in New Jersey:
New Jersey Now Has a Mandatory
CLE Requirement
Effective January 1, 2010, any lawyer holding a license to practice law in New Jersey (whether possessing a plenary or limited license) is required to complete 24 hours of continuing legal education every two years, including at least four hours on topics related to ethics and professionalism, pursuant to Rule 1:42, adopted by the New Jersey Supreme Court on December 18, 2009.
PBI Courses Qualify for NJ Credit
Credits taken with the Pennsylvania Bar Institute will satisfy the NJ requirements (but see narrow definition of live courses, below).
Compliance Groups
Under Regulation 401 (see link to regulations under "More Info" heading below), attorneys have been assigned to one of two compliance periods, based upon their BIRTH MONTH, as follows:
- If your birthday falls in January through June, you have been assigned to Compliance Group 1. Your first deadline is to accrue the required 24 credits by December 31, 2011.
- If your birthday falls in July through December, you have been assigned to Compliance Group 2. By December 31, 2010, that group is required to earn one-half of the mandatory CLE credits (i.e. 12 of your 24). Thereafter, you will be required to earn 24 credits every two years.
Retroactive Credits
For the first compliance periods, attorneys are able to count credits back to qualified CLE courses attended from January 1, 2009 forward.
Self-Reporting
New Jersey will be a “self-reporting” jurisdiction. You will be responsible for certifying your completion of the required credits on a form that will be supplied to you by the NJ Board on Continuing Legal Education, most likely with your annual NJ Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection bill. Although the exact date by which this CLE reporting form will be due is not yet known, it will likely be sometime in April of the year following your deadline for accruing the credits. We recommend that you hold onto your copy of the PBI Certificate of Attendance (“Blue Form”) as verification of your attendance, along with a copy of the program schedule or advertising from the course in the event that you are audited by the NJ Board. You may also want to periodically obtain a copy of your CLE report from the Pennsylvania CLE Board.
New Admittees*
Your compliance reporting period does not begin to run until January 1 of the year following admission to the NJ Bar. During your first compliance period, you must satisfy 15 of your 24 credits in five of nine NJ-specific subject areas (See Regulation 201:2 for more details); the regulations are linked below under More info.
* PBI will NOT offer the NJ specific courses required for new admittees.
Narrow definition of live courses
New Jersey requires that at least half of a lawyer's credits be earned in "live" courses, which New Jersey narrowly construes as requiring that the speaker be in the same room with the participants.
More Info
This page was first posted February 8, 2010 and revised April 30, May 3, May 12, and July 14, 2010. |
