News & Updates
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CLE Commission files petition to amend Supreme Court Rule21.
On December 30, 2020, the CLE petition filed a petition with the Supreme Court to amend various provisions of Rule 21 relative to continuing legal education. See the petition HERE.
NEW Covid-19 News
December 3, 2020: EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY the Supreme Court has entered a new order allowing attorneys to use unlimited online hours to establish their compliance for the 2021 compliance year. Attorneys seeking reinstatement in 2021 are also covered by the order. In addition attorneys will be able to carry forward a maximum of 15 hours of online CLE from 2020 toward their 2021 CLE requirement. This order is in effect through December 31, 2021. The Court continues to monitor the impact of Covid-19. See the new order HERE.
On March 27, 2020, the Supreme Court entered an order allowing attorneys to use unlimited online hours to establish their compliance for the 2020 compliance year. Attorneys seeking reinstatement in 2020 are also covered by the order. Access the 2020 order HERE. On March 13, 2020, the Tennessee Supreme Court issued an order allowing Unlimited Online Hours toward 2019 Compliance. The order is effective through March 31, 2020 for the 2019 compliance year. See the 2019 order here
Notice of Credit Card Payment Changes
The CLE Commission switched to a new credit card payment vendor in December 2019. The new system will allow international payment cards. You will see new payment screens. There will also be a transaction fee for payment made using the website. The site uses a pop up which opens a new window to complete your transaction. Please disable any pop up blocker.
The Commission has paid these fees for more than twelve years. Due to increasing costs and to bring the Commission in line with best practices at other state government agencies, a new policy for the use of credit cards to pay charges on an attorney, provider, or law firm account, will be implemented.
- Effective December 7, 2019 a 2.35% convenience fee will be assessed on all Visa, MasterCard, Discover Card and American Express credit card transactions.
No transaction fee will be assessed on payments made by check.
Please Note:
- The Commission does not keep any part of the convenience fee. The fee is charged and collected by a 3rd party processor contracted by the Commission to provide credit card processing services for accounts. The full amount of the payment less the processing fee is remitted to the Commission.
- These changes are in line with policies already in place at other government agencies in the state including the Board of Professional Responsibility and the Department of Revenue.
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On April 25, 2019 the Supreme Court approved major amendments to Rule 21 governing Continuing Legal Education to clarify and simply the rule. Click Here to read the new rule
December 31st is the Compliance Deadline
The compliance deadline will soon be here. Now is the time to report out-of-state and online courses that are usually not reported by providers. Remember that Rule 21, Section 8.03 requires attorneys to pay for out-of-state and online hours where the course provider does not pay the fee. Notices of pending unpaid attendance are sent by e-mail when you have insufficient funds to post a course. Included are instructions to how to keep and pay for hours as well as how to delete unwanted hours. Make sure your e-mail address is up to date. Check the Quick Links for more detail.
Exemptions are claimed on the Annual Report Statement which are sent at the end of February.
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ANNUAL COMPLIANCE SUMMARY
Rule 21 requires that the Commission publish an Annual Compliance Summary of the activities of the Commission and the CLE reports and requests for exemption received by the Commission during the preceding compliance year. The report contains MULTIPLE Tables. Click here to access the report.