Review the Latest Changes to Florida CLE Rules
The Florida Supreme Court has reduced the required CLE hours from 33 to 30 effective January 8, 2024. This means that any Florida attorney with a January 31, 2024, compliance deadline and beyond only needs to complete a total of 30 CLE hours. Of the 30 credit hours, a minimum of 5 of the credit hours are still required to be in ethics, professionalism, substance abuse, or mental health. However, the 1 hour of professionalism requirement is going to be increased to 2 hours of professionalism. If you have already started taking your CLE courses, and your compliance deadline is in 2024, read on to see how your credits will count toward your Florida 2024 requirement.
Elimination of Bias No Longer Required
Elimination of Bias has been removed from the sub-requirement and will no longer qualify for ethics credit. If you took or take a bias course before January 8, 2024, the bias course will count toward the 5 sub-requirements. Any bias course taken after January 8, 2024, will count toward the general requirement.
Free Professionalism Credits from Florida Bar
Another big change, as if going from 33 to 30 wasn’t big enough for you, is the new requirement for 2 hours of professionalism. The big catch is that this 2-hour professionalism course is going to only be offered for free by the Florida Bar. You will have to take your 2-hour professionalism course from the Florida Bar, no exceptions if your compliance deadline is April 2024 and beyond.
However, please note that if your compliance cycle ends January 31, February 29, or March 31, 2024, you do not have to take the new professionalism course from the Florida Bar (you will use the old 5-hour requirement which includes 1 hour of professionalism). Anyone with an April 30, 2024, and beyond compliance deadline will be required to take the new 2-hour professionalism course from the Florida Bar.
Attorney Credits Will Still Offer the CLE Bundles You Need
To help you complete your Florida CLE requirements throughout this change, we offer many different Florida compliance bundles. For those attorneys who still need 33 credit hours, we still offer 33 credit hour bundles. If your next compliance cycle ends January, February, or March 2024, we offer a 30-credit hour bundle. If your next compliance cycle ends April 2024 and beyond, we offer a 28-credit hour bundle. As of April 2024, we will convert our most common bundles to 28 hours and retain a couple of late compliance bundles for any attorneys who missed their CLE deadline. Attorney Credits only offers pre-approved Florida CLE courses. Please ask your CLE provider if they get their Florida courses pre-approved because many do not. Earn your credits confidently with us!