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What can you do with leftover CPD points?
Getting all the requisite points before the annual CPD deadline can often be stressful for lawyers. Finding out you’ve got leftover points can be equally frustrating. If you find yourself in this latter scenario, here’s what you can do.
Jerome Doraisamy
In a recent episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, Legalwise Seminars managing director Jacquelyn Simon reflected on the most frequently asked questions lawyers pose to the education provider around the accruing of points for compulsory professional development (CPD) and best practice tips for practitioners ahead of the 31 March deadline.
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When asked what lawyers can do with leftover points they have accrued in a single reporting year that cannot be used in that year, Simon said: “[T]hat’s actually not a problem”, and noted there are a handful of reasons why lawyers may find they have extra points.
“They may have done something on a recording and they can no longer claim it, or it could be just that they’ve gone to a very long, multi-day conference, or found something they want to do and it is useful for their practice.”
In this latter instance, she mused, it is always helpful for lawyers to “get the good learning in” and worry about the points afterwards.
Thankfully, she pointed out: “[T]he rules do help you use some of that extra learning in another year”.
In the face of a conundrum about what to do with leftover points, Simon explained, lawyers can transfer up to 3 points each year over to the next CPD year.
“So, if you have done 15, 16, 17 hours or points of CPD, you can still only claim the 10 points for that one year. But what you can do is you can take 3 points and you can claim it the next year, because the rules have been written for lawyers, by lawyers,” she said.
This said, Simon added, there are constraints around this.
“You can only claim 3 points as extra points within the January to March period of the CPD year before. So, 15 months ago, you couldn’t split a program, you could only claim it in one CPD year, not over two CPD years. And you can’t go through six hours of CPD, as in, be [at a conference] all day, and claim three hours this year and three hours next year,” Simon concluded.
“So, while there are rules around carrying over, you can carry over up to 3 points into the next CPD year.
“It helps a lot of people.”
In the same episode, Simon clarified some misunderstandings that lawyers have regarding the claiming of CPD points from online recordings.
Elsewhere, she recently discussed Legalwise’s vision to be “the Netflix of legal content”.
To listen to the full episode with Jacquelyn Simon, click below:
