Online MCLE is Available from Numerous Providers
by Carole Levitt, JD, MLS & Mark Rosch
Attorneys now have a lot of options on how to earn their MCLE credits, whether at live-seminars or online, but it didn't used to be that way. When I first learned about California's MCLE requirements in the '80s, I was convinced that "MCLE" stood for "Make Carole Levitt Exhausted" instead of "Minimum Continuing Legal Education." 36 hours of continuing legal education every three years? First, what was minimal about 36 hours? And second, as far as I was concerned, I had gone through enough continuing legal education already -- thanks to five years of an evening law school program that continued on and on and on.
In 2000, I was able to readjust my attitude about MCLE and say that "MCLE" stood for "Make Carole's Life Easier." It wasn't just the downward adjustment of the required hours from 36 to 25 hours that made my life easier; it was the California Legislature's declaration that attorneys could now satisfy MCLE requirements from the comfort of home -- via the Internet. By decreasing the number of hours required and allowing us to take them over the Internet, attorneys now had more options and could save both time and money. At the time, the concept was so new that there weren't many vendors to choose from. To help attorneys navigate these new waters, I prepared a survey of online courses for the July 2000 Los Angeles Lawyer 's "Computer Counselor" column (see http://www.lacba.org/lalawyer/tech/comp6-00.html).
We've Come a Long Way in the Online CLE World!
Flash forward 2.5 years. Andrew Zangrilli, editor of FindLaw's Modern Practice online magazine, asked me to write "something" about online CLE. It seemed the perfect opportunity to see how far we've come in this online CLE business. From the sheer increase in number of online courses offered, topics covered and online vendors, it's obvious how far we've come.
Finding these Cyber CLE courses and determining which ones have value is still a challenging proposition. There is still no consistency between each state's online CLE requirements (and some states still don't even permit it) causing some confusion for attorneys and online vendors alike. For instance, some states allow "self-study" online credit only while others also allow "participatory" online credit. And, what one state calls "self-study" another calls "participatory." Some states limit the total number of hours that can be earned online while others allow an attorney to fulfill all their CLE online (e.g. California). While most online courses are billed as "Participatory," they can still be taken as self-study credits if that's all a state allows. There are also online courses that are only self-study. Attorneys should familiarize themselves with their own state's regulations regarding online MCLE before choosing a course.
A chart comparing all of the providers discussed in this article is available by clicking here.
The cost, length and format of these cyber courses also still vary widely, but what they all have in common is the ability to be viewed seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. Some of the variables include:
Cost
Some providers offer free CLE courses, but you have to be vigilant to find these-I'll point some out. Some charge as high as thousands of dollars while others charge as low as $15 per hour or lower if they are running specials (e.g. Internet For Lawyers
|
Internet For Lawyers
THEN: Internet For Lawyers (http://www.netforlawyers.com) introduced its first online text-based CLE course in 2000. Their single General CLE credit exercise used the Internet itself as a teaching tool. It combined a comprehensive article on locating free public records online with an accompanying quiz leading attorneys through the functions of some of those sites in search of specific public records information. The one hour CLE credit cost only $15.00 and was payable only by check. CLE Credit was only available for California attorneys.
NOW: Internet For Lawyers has increased the number of hours of CLE credit available, without increasing their price. The site now offers text-based articles and accompanying quizzes covering a total of nine hours of General, Legal Ethics, Substance Abuse and Law Practice Management credits. The quizzes show attorneys where to find important free research resources useful to their practice while also satisfying their CLE requirements. Credit can cost as little as $13.88 per hour when submitting all nine hours ($15.00 per hour when submitted separately). Payment can now be made by credit card or check. In addition to California, CLE credit is now also expanded to New York and Arizona.
Close This
|
and Law.com).
|
THEN: Law.com's online seminar division, LegalSeminars.com was accredited to offer CLE courses in twenty states including California. Law.com produced 250 online seminars from 1995-2000. Each course included panelist bios, library documents, seminar discussions and links to relevant statutes, case law and Internet resources. To understand the format of LegalSeminars.com, a free "tour" of a seminar was offered at the site. Courses ran for two weeks, and attorneys could join in at any time. A course agenda for the 2 weeks was posted and a moderator led the discussion daily (via e-mail), with cyber attendees joining in the discussion. Courses were three hours in length and cost between $79.00-$99.00. A premium subscription, providing access to all online programs for a year, was priced at $229.00. Once an attorney paid for a course, it could be accessed for one year in the LegalSeminars' archives.
NOW: The seminar format described above is still the same, but new formats have also been introduced, such as streaming audio courses and streaming video courses. One of the biggest changes at LegalSeminars.com is now that it is fully integrated into Law.com, its name has changed to "Law.com Online CLE" and its URL has changed too (http://store.law.com/seminars/). Another change is the pricing, which has been lowered to $29.00-$69.00 for courses lasting one to three hours. The "premium" subscription price is not advertised, but you can call for group pricing. Law.com has also added 7 states since 2000, and is now accredited in twenty-seven states. I served on the faculty of one of their seminars in
Close This
|
Also, a vendor might have group discounts for law firms (or a flat rate for individual attorneys who plan on taking many courses from the same vendor), possibly lowering the costs even more. Most courses are from $20-$50 for one hour of credit.
Program Length
Courses can range from fourteen minutes to as long as two full days (PLI),with most lasting one hour to three hours.
|
Practicising Law Intitute
THEN: Practicing Law Institute (http://www.pli.edu/) developed 24 California accredited "web programs," with streaming audio/video online versions of their live programs. These also included links to related written materials (PLI) and other non-PLI web-based resources, as well as an online discussion group.
A 1.3-hour program was priced at $129 while a twelve-hour was $750. PLI allowed attorneys to purchase its longer programs in shorter segments for $129.
NOW: The biggest change in PLI is the addition of live online seminar "webcasts". Priced up to $1,695 for a two-day seminar, the cost is higher than their web programs, which are still mostly priced at $750, but can go up to $1,295 for a two-day seminar. The above description from the year 2000 still applies for its other seminars.
Close This
|
Course Format
Courses range from text-based (read an article online and then answer quiz questions -- e.g. Internet For Lawyers
|
Internet For Lawyers
THEN: Internet For Lawyers (http://www.netforlawyers.com) introduced its first online text-based CLE course in 2000. Their single General CLE credit exercise used the Internet itself as a teaching tool. It combined a comprehensive article on locating free public records online with an accompanying quiz leading attorneys through the functions of some of those sites in search of specific public records information. The one hour CLE credit cost only $15.00 and was payable only by check. CLE Credit was only available for California attorneys.
NOW: Internet For Lawyers has increased the number of hours of CLE credit available, without increasing their price. The site now offers text-based articles and accompanying quizzes covering a total of nine hours of General, Legal Ethics, Substance Abuse and Law Practice Management credits. The quizzes show attorneys where to find important free research resources useful to their practice while also satisfying their CLE requirements. Credit can cost as little as $13.88 per hour when submitting all nine hours ($15.00 per hour when submitted separately). Payment can now be made by credit card or check. In addition to California, CLE credit is now also expanded to New York and Arizona.
Close This
|
and Findlaw),
|
FindLaw
THEN: FindLaw's online text-based CLE courses were comprised of an annotated quiz with a web surfing component. This made the course more interactive than just reading an article online. The quiz provided a brief overview of a site and then sent attorneys to those sites to answer questions. The focus of FindLaw's courses was to teach attorneys about the most useful legal research sites available on the Internet--from health care law, California law and Federal law to cyberspace law and environmental law. To earn one hour of credit, attorneys could mail in, fax or e-mail the answers to the 10-question quiz, along with a $20 check or credit card information.
NOW: When I clicked on http://www.findlaw.com/07cle/cle, which is the URL I used when I wrote the CLE article in 2000, everything looked the same except for a price increase ($35 per hour) and an increase in the number of credit hours offered (25). However, when I went to Findlaw.com's home page and clicked on "Online CLE," I was taken to the WestLegalEd Center instead. Since West now owns FindLaw, it seems that Findlaw's online CLE is folded into the WestLegalEd Center.
Close This
|
to courses that include discussion groups (and bulletin boards), to streaming audio courses and streaming audio/video courses. The streaming audio and video courses are most always taped from live events and are not produced specially for the online web site. Because bandwith seems to be less of a factor now, I'm seeing more multi-media courses online, more PowerPoint slides and even live webcasts. When I surveyed nine vendors in 2000, only two offered video and three others offered audio. Now, almost all are offering at least audio or video.
Conclusion
With this explosion of online CLE courses, you now have a choice: you can either stay up late worrying about how to complete your CLE hours or you can stay up late and actually complete your CLE hours -- without leaving the comfort of home. And, for the procrastinators, the time to try online courses might be now, just as most states' compliance deadlines are looming. Why try online courses right before your state compliance deadline? Because that's when you'll begin to see a proliferation of discounts and specials meant to entice novices to give online CLE a try. (See, it does pay to procrastinate!) For instance, with one month to go for the California CLE deadline, I've received emails from both Law.com
|
Law.com
THEN: Law.com's online seminar division, LegalSeminars.com was accredited to offer CLE courses in twenty states including California. Law.com produced 250 online seminars from 1995-2000. Each course included panelist bios, library documents, seminar discussions and links to relevant statutes, case law and Internet resources. To understand the format of LegalSeminars.com, a free "tour" of a seminar was offered at the site. Courses ran for two weeks, and attorneys could join in at any time. A course agenda for the 2 weeks was posted and a moderator led the discussion daily (via e-mail), with cyber attendees joining in the discussion. Courses were three hours in length and cost between $79.00-$99.00. A premium subscription, providing access to all online programs for a year, was priced at $229.00. Once an attorney paid for a course, it could be accessed for one year in the LegalSeminars' archives.
NOW: The seminar format described above is still the same, but new formats have also been introduced, such as streaming audio courses and streaming video courses. One of the biggest changes at LegalSeminars.com is now that it is fully integrated into Law.com, its name has changed to "Law.com Online CLE" and its URL has changed too (http://store.law.com/seminars/). Another change is the pricing, which has been lowered to $29.00-$69.00 for courses lasting one to three hours. The "premium" subscription price is not advertised, but you can call for group pricing. Law.com has also added 7 states since 2000, and is now accredited in twenty-seven states. I served on the faculty of one of their seminars in
Close This
|
(where I was informed that the price was less than $15/credit hour for a bundle of 10 hours or more) and the Beverly Hills Bar Association
|
State & Local Bar Associations
THEN: Using the Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA) as a local bar association example, in 2000, they offered a text-based online CLE course for $15 for one hour of self-study credit ($20 for non-members). This was an online version of a CLE article and quiz found monthly in the Los Angeles Lawyer magazine. Topics varied month to month. Answers could be submitted online and paid by credit card or answers could be mailed, along with a check. LACBA advised visitors that live LACBA seminars were going to be placed online by Taecan in the near future.
NOW: The future is now! Although I did not see any of the "live" Taecan seminars at the LACBA site that were mentioned as coming in 2000, LACBA (along with many other bars), did team up with Taecan to add audio and video seminars online. And, in addition to partnering with Taecan, LACBA also partnered with West LegalEd Center and Affinity Learning (108 courses-but not all relevant to California attorneys, with prices ranging from $20-$46). LACBA still offers the same online quizzes it did back in 2000 and still charges the same price.
Close This
|
(where I was informed that "as a new West LegalEdcenter
|
West LegalEdCenter
THEN: It didn't exist then! There, that was easy.
NOW: West LegalEdcenter has over 1, 000 accredited audio or video online CLE programs (and some live webcasts) from over 65 local, state and national providers, ranging from the ABA to the Women's Bar Association of the State of New York (http://westlegaledcenter.com/). To access the seminars, you are informed that you must use Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher. West's courses are accredited in 34 states. For a terrific map that clearly shows which states accept online CLE credit, see http://westlegaledcenter.com/requirements/requirements.jsp?page=rquirmnt.
E-mail alerts of upcoming seminars, online tracking of CLE credits and links to Westlaw are some of the features of this site. Prices vary widely, sometimes depending on the format or whether you are a member of a specific bar. For example, the fifteen West LegalEd Center courses listed on the California Bar site show a one-hour course priced as low as $35 and a 3.25 hours course at $125 for audio, but $140 for video. Another example of the price variation is a 1.5 hour audio course for $115, but $75 for members of the ABA Public Contract Law Section. I was puzzled as to why one of the courses listed on the California Bar site, specifically about California employment law, was also accredited in eight other states. West has many useful search tools to find just the right course: search by specialization credits, state, content provider or practice area.
Close This
|
registered user, you are immediately entitled to a free BHBA program of your choice"). For attorneys licensed in states where the compliance deadline is not at year-end, look for discounts closer to your compliance deadline. Before plunging in, however, a new online CLE user should read the site documentation carefully to be sure the course is accredited in their state. Still not ready? Then at least try the free demos most providers offer so you can get a feel for the process.
