Florida Bar reduces Number of Mandatory CLE Hours

TLDR: The number of total CLE is being reduced from 33 to 30; this change will take effect January 8, 2024.

Read the full article HERE.

While FRPs are not mentioned specifically, the reduced number of hours will probably apply.

The key points are:

• The effective date of the order is January 8, 2024
• The court reduced the hours a lawyer must earn every three-year reporting cycle, from 33 to 30.
• If you are in a CLE reporting cycle that ends prior to that effective date, then they are falling under the current requirement of needing 33 hours of the CLE in the rule that exists today
• A new requirement that Bar members complete a free two-hour legal professionalism course produced by The Florida Bar and approved by this Court
• Courses in ‘bias elimination’ that meet The Florida Bar’s general course approval requirements “will continue to count toward the fulfillment of Bar members’ overall 30-hour CLE requirement; but such courses will no longer count toward fulfillment of the five-hour sub-requirement specified in the rule,”
• Bias elimination courses taken before January 8, 2024, “will count toward a member’s fulfillment of the five-hour sub-requirement,” for the applicable reporting cycle.
• The order also grants a grace period. For any Bar member who has less than three months remaining in a reporting cycle when the amendments take effect, “the requirement to take the two-hour, Bar-produced course on professionalism will not apply until the member’s subsequent reporting cycle.”
• Lawyers who have a CLE reporting cycle that ends January 31, February 28, or March 31, will not have to have that Bar-produced course in the current cycle
• Beginning April 30th, all Bar members with CLE reporting cycles of April 30th and beyond will have to take the new two-hour course
• The Bar’s Center for Professionalism expects to have a course developed before the end of the year.