Florida Registered Paralegals must complete a minimum of 30 hours of continuing education every 3 years, 5 hours of which must be in legal ethics or professionalism and 3 hours of which must be in technology. Acceptable courses include those approved for credit by The Florida Bar, the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA), or the National Federation of Paralegal Associations (NFPA). A Florida Registered Paralegal who resigns or whose status has been revoked but is otherwise eligible for re-registration must complete at least 10 hours of continuing education for each year the Florida Registered Paralegal was previously registered in order to be eligible for re-registration. The new registration will be revoked unless the continuing education hours are completed before the re-registration application and posted on The Florida Bar website within 30 days of the effective date of the re-registration. The Florida Registered Paralegal will be given a new 3-year continuing education cycle on re-registration.
Comment
Continuing education is an important component of the Florida Registered Paralegal program and necessary to maintain the status of a Florida Registered Paralegal. If a Florida Registered Paralegal resigns or has had the paralegal’s status revoked at the end of a continuing education cycle without completing the necessary hours, the paralegal must show that the paralegal has completed a minimum of 10 hours of continuing education for each year of the immediately preceding term that the paralegal was registered. For example, if the paralegal was registered for 2 years, the paralegal must complete at least 20 hours of continuing education in order to re-register. The courses must be completed prior to the date the paralegal reapplies for Florida Registered Paralegal status. As an example, assume that a Florida Registered Paralegal was given a continuing education cycle that ran from January 1, 2011, to January 1, 2014, and the Florida Registered Paralegal resigned or had the paralegal’s status revoked in October 2013. If the paralegal reapplies for Florida Registered Paralegal status in February 2014, the paralegal must show 20 hours of continuing education credit completed between January 1, 2011, to January 1, 2014, to be eligible to re-register. Because a Florida Registered Paralegal must enter all course credits on The Florida Bar’s website and access to the portion of the website where credits are posted is not available during the period the paralegal was not registered, the Florida Registered Paralegal will have 30 days after re-registration to enter the credits. Failure to timely enter the credits will result in the Florida Registered Paralegal’s status being revoked. The Florida Registered Paralegal will be given a new continuing education cycle on re-registration. The purpose of this rule is to ensure that Florida Registered Paralegals continue their education. This is meant to avoid a situation where a Florida Registered Paralegal has not completed the continuing education requirement, resigns, and then re-registers with a new 3-year cycle, having failed to complete the requisite hours when previously registered.
If a Florida Registered Paralegal resigns or has the paralegal’s status revoked during the continuing education cycle, the cycle will not reset. For example, assume a Florida Registered Paralegal has a continuing education cycle beginning January 1, 2011 and ending January 1, 2014. The Florida Registered Paralegal’s status is revoked in October 2012, for failure to pay the annual renewal. If the paralegal reapplies and is re-registered in December 2012, the continuing education cycle will remain the same, and the Florida Registered Paralegal will have until January 1, 2014, to complete the necessary hours.
Added November 15, 2007, effective March 1, 2008, (SC06-1622), (969 So.2d 360); amended May 29, 2014, effective June 1, 2014 (SC12-2234); amended Jan. 4, 2019, effective March 5, 2019 (SC18-1683); amended February 29, 2024, effective January 8, 2024 (SC23-1412).