CPD Requirements for WA lawyers
The Legal Practice Board of WA’s mandatory CPD scheme is set out in full in the Legal Profession Rules 2009. Compliance with the CPD scheme is a requirement for the renewal of a practitioner’s WA practising certificate.
CPD Activities
Under the Legal Practice Board of WA’s CPD scheme, a CPD activity must:
- be of significant intellectual or practical content and must deal with matters relevant to the practice of law;
- be conducted by persons who are qualified by practical or academic experience in the subject covered;
- be relevant to a practitioner’s immediate or long-term needs in relation to the practitioner’s professional development and to the practice of law, and
- fall within at least one of the three mandatory competency areas.
WA legal practitioners may only earn CPD points by completing approved CPD activities. An approved CPD activity must be provided by a QA provider of continuing professional development or be specifically approved by the Legal Practice Board of WA to comply with the CPD scheme.
LawCPD has been approved by the Legal Practice Board of WA as a QA Provider of continuing professional development for the WA legal profession. This means that all of LawCPD's courses are an approved CPD activity under the Legal Practice Board of WA’s CPD scheme.
Under the Legal Practice Board of WA’s CPD scheme, approved CPD activities may be classified as individual activities, publishing activities or interactive activities.
LawCPD’s online legal CPD courses are an interactive activity, because they are classified as an interactive electronic activity under rule 7 of the Legal Profession Rules 2009. This means that WA practitioners can earn 1 CPD point per hour and all 10 CPD points annually by completing LawCPD’s online legal CPD courses.
Annual Requirements
According the Legal Practice Board of WA’s CPD scheme, practitioners must earn a minimum of 10 CPD points every CPD year (1 April – 31 March annually).
There are three mandatory competency areas under the CPD scheme:
- C1: Legal Skills and Practice
- C2: Ethics and Professional Responsibility
- C3: Substantive Law
WA Practitioners must complete the minimum points in the mandatory competency areas listed below:
Lawyers practicing for less than 5 years
- C1: Legal Skills and Practice – 4 CPD points
- C2: Ethics and Professional Responsibility – 4 CPD points
Lawyers practicing for more than 5 years
- C1: Legal Skills and Practice – 2 CPD points
- C2: Ethics and Professional Responsibility – 2 CPD points
The remaining CPD points may be earned in any of the three mandatory competency areas.
All of LawCPD’s online legal CPD courses have been classified into the different mandatory competency areas to make compliance easy for WA practitioners.
Record Keeping and Auditing
Under the Legal Practice Board of WA’s CPD scheme, practitioners must maintain a record of their CPD activities. Practitioners must also retain some supporting documentation to support their CPD record.
Practitioners will be required to certify whether they have met their obligations under the CPD scheme when they renew their practising certificates.
The Legal Practice Board of WA conducts annual random audits of practitioners’ CPD records to monitor compliance with the CPD scheme. If a practitioner is selected for audit, they will need to provide supporting documentation to the Legal Practice Board of WA to verify that they have complied 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 points earned through LawCPD. Practitioners can print a copy of this page and provide it to the Legal Practice Board of WA in the event that they are audited for compliance with the CPD scheme.
LawCPD also provides printable certificates for each course 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 Legal Practice Board of WA.
Further Information
For full details of the Legal Practice Board of WA’s CPD scheme and the requirements for WA practitioners, visit the Legal Practice Board of WA’s website.
