APR 11 REVIEW PROJECT 2007

The amendments to Admission to Practice Rule (APR) 11 and Appendix APR 11, sent to the Supreme Court in June 2007, have been published for comment by the Court.  The amendments and instructions for making comments can be found at http://www.courts.wa.gov/court_rules/?fa=court_rules.proposedDetails&proposedId=27.  The comment period will close on April 30, 2008.

The suggested amendments to APR 11 would: 

Change the official title of the Board of Continuing Legal Education to the "Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Board" or "MCLE Board"; 

Bring all of the credit requirements for mandatory continuing legal education for lawyers into one rule (APR 11.2), pulling some out of the existing regulations; 

Reduce the number of credits that must be earned as "live" credits;

Do away with a three-month grace period for lawyers to become compliant with their MCLE requirements after the end of their actual reporting period; and 

Separately set out provisions of APR 11.4 and 11.6 regarding enforcement and appeals from decisions, to make them easier to locate and understand.

The suggested amendments to APR 11 Appendix would:

Make the requirements for course accreditation and the requirements imposed on all sponsors more uniform, assuring quality education through a system of advance submission of agendas, review of course materials (when appropriate), evaluations by attendees, and spot audits of seminars; 

Eliminate the existing limits on the number of credits that can be earned through open and closed in-house CLE seminars sponsored by private law firms, corporate legal departments, and government agencies, addressing concerns raised by those groups regarding the current Regulation 104(e); 

Increase the list of topics eligible for accreditation, allowing for accreditation of more topics applicable to small- and solo-practices and more topics related to mental health issues; 

Revise requirements for sponsors to become "accredited sponsors" (sponsors allowed to set credit awards for their own courses, subject to review by the MCLE Board); 

Streamline some regulatory processes; and 

Clarify and simplify the wording of the regulations.

If you have any questions about the amendments, you can contact Kathy Todd, MCLE Manager at 206-733-5912 or kathyt@wsba.org.

Any conflict between information on this web page and the Admission to Practice Rules of the State of Washington or regulations pertaining thereto (the Rules) is resolved in favor of the Rules.