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.  

When does the Tennessee CLE compliance year start and end? 
Tennessee’s compliance year for CLE runs from January 1 through December 31.   See Rule 21 §3.01.   Don’t confuse this with the Board of Professional Responsibility’s licensing year which is based on your birth date.

What if I don't have my hours by December 31st? 
You will owe a $100 non-completion fee, and you will still be required to complete the required hours.  The hours you earn following the close of the compliance year will first go toward your prior year shortage, then will count toward the new compliance year.

Why doesn’t the CLE course I took recently show up on my account? 
Providers have thirty (30) days to notify us of course completion. If the course still has not posted after forty-five (45) days contact the provider. See Rule 21, Section 8.02. All providers do not report attendance.   You may need to report your attendance by sending us your certificate of completion and the Request for Out of State, Online or Other Unpaid Credits form.

What does it mean if a course shows "Dual" credits? 
"Dual" credits are CLE credits that can be applied toward either the Ethics & Professionalism or the general CLE requirement.   Hours will be reflected as Dual until the end of the compliance year when our system will first apply Dual credit hours toward the three hour Ethics requirement.  Any remaining Dual credit hours will go toward the twelve (12) hours General requirement.  Dual credit DOES NOT MEAN that you can receive two hours of credit for each hour taken.

 Can I carry hours forward to the next year? 
Yes, up to one full year's worth of both General (12 hours) and Ethics & Professionalism (3 hours) can be carried forward to the next compliance year.  Currently, you can carry forward 15 online hours form 2020 to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Normally, you can carry forward up to eight online credits if you earn more than eight (8) online credits in a compliance year.  You can only carry forward one year's worth of credit.   See Rule 21, Section 4.02(c).   *Since all CLE credits can be earned online in 2021 you can carry forward a maximum of 15.0 online credits to 2021 from 2020.   Unless otherwise changed by the Court, you will only be able to carry a maximum of 8.0 online hours forward from 2021 to the 2022 compliance year.

What are Tennessee's Continuing Legal Education Requirements? 
Each attorney must complete a total of fifteen (15) hours of CLE, which must consist of no less than twelve (12) General hours and three (3) Ethics/Professionalism hours (or Dual hours) per year.  For the years 2019 through 2021 all hours can be earned online as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

My address, email, phone number or all of my contact information is wrong. How do I correct this? 
Under Supreme Court Rule 9, you must update your contact information with the Board of Professional Responsibility ("BPR") within thirty (30) days of any change in your contact information.   For this reason, we receive weekly electronic system updates from the BPR's system.   If your contact information is correct with them, then it should be correct with us with a possible one week delay.   If you give us the change and don't update the BPR, their system will overwrite our changes when the weekly update occurs.  If our system is incorrect and you updated the information on the BPR website a month ago, then there is a problem that needs to be followed up upon. For all other CLE related questions, please visit:  https://cletn.com/index.php/for-attorneys/faq2