CPD Requirements for ACT lawyers
ACT Solicitors
The ACT Law Society introduced a mandatory CPD scheme for ACT practitioners which commenced on 1 July 2010. Complying with the requirements of the CPD scheme is a mandatory condition for the renewal of a practicing certificate pursuant to section 47 of the Legal Profession Act 2006 (ACT).
CPD Activities
Under the CPD scheme introduced by the ACT Law Society, a CPD activity must be:
- of significant intellectual or practical content and must deal primarily with matters related to the practice of law;
- conducted by persons who are qualified by practical or academic experience in the subject covered;
- relevant to a practitioner’s immediate or long term professional development needs.
A CPD activity must consist of one of the activities set out in clause 2.8 of the ACT Law Society’s CPD Scheme.
LawCPD’s online legal CPD courses are classified as a multi-media or web-based program under clause 2.8 of the ACT Law Society’s CPD Scheme. This means that ACT practitioners can earn 1 CPD unit per hour and up to 5 CPD units annually by completing LawCPD’s online legal CPD courses.
Annual Requirements
According to the ACT Law Society’s CPD scheme, practitioners must earn 7 CPD units in the first CPD year (1 July 2010 – 31 March 2011) and then must earn 10 CPD units in every subsequent CPD year (1 April – 31 March annually).
ACT practitioners must earn a minimum of one unit from each of the following three mandatory core areas:
- Practical Legal Ethics;
- Practice Management and Business Skills; and
- Professional Skills.
Practitioners may determine which core area a CPD activity fits according to the context and content of the activity. LawCPD has allocated mandatory core areas to each module on the website to assist practitioners with this task.
Record Keeping and Auditing
Under the ACT Law Society’s CPD scheme, practitioners must maintain, or arrange to have maintained, their own CPD records. Records may take any form but must establish to the satisfaction of the ACT Law Society that the CPD was undertaken.
Practitioners must attest that they have complied with the scheme rules when required to by the ACT Law Society. To that end, a declaration for signature by the practitioner will be included in the practicing certificate renewal application form.
The ACT Law Society may also conduct an annual random audit of practitioners’ CPD records to monitor compliance with the CPD scheme.
LawCPD provides practitioners with a personalised page (MyCPD) which tracks all their learning in real time and provides a record of all CPD units earned through LawCPD. Practitioners can print a copy of this page and provide it to the ACT Law Society in the event that they are audited for compliance with the CPD scheme.
LawCPD also provides printable certificates for each module completed which can be downloaded from the MyCPD page. These certificates may also be provided to prove compliance with the CPD scheme if the practitioner is audited by the ACT Law Society.
Further Information
For full details of the ACT Law Society’s CPD scheme and the requirements for ACT practitioners, visit the ACT Law Society website.
ACT Barristers
LawCPD is currently clarifying whether our online legal CPD courses fall within the ACT Bar Association’s Continuing Professional Development Rules. For further information on the CPD requirements for ACT barristers, visit the ACT Bar Association website.
