30 credit hours every 3 years, reported every 3 years. Verified against the FL bar or court authority.
| Total CLE required | 30 credit hours every 3 years |
|---|---|
| Ethics requirement | 5 hrs (ethics / professionalism / substance abuse / mental health) |
| Reporting cycle | Every 3 years |
| Wellness / mental health credit | 2 hrs mental health & wellness (within the 5-hr block) |
| Online CLE accepted | Yes |
| Accreditation route | Approved (The Florida Bar) |
Note: Requirement reduced from 33 to 30 hrs/cycle effective Jan 8, 2024; 2-hr Bar-provided professionalism course now required within the ethics block.
Florida's 30 hours over three years works out to 10 hours a year. That is on the lighter end. 38 of the 46 mandating jurisdictions ask for more.
Florida recognizes wellness or mental health credit. 2 hrs mental health & wellness (within the 5-hr block) This is the most direct route to satisfying part of your requirement with substantive training rather than a box-ticking exercise. AWP programs are built for exactly this category: live, taught by physicians, judges, and practising attorneys, and grounded in the neurobiology of cumulative stress rather than general wellness advice.
Florida requires 30 hours every 3 years, of which 5 are earmarked for ethics. That leaves roughly 25 hours every 3 years that you choose the content for. Those are the hours in question.
Research into lawyer suicidality found perceived stress to be the single strongest predictor, with lawyers reporting high stress 22 times more likely to contemplate suicide than those reporting low stress. The same body of work found that lawyers in environments valuing professionalism and humanity over productivity and constant availability were measurably healthier.
Exposure follows the material rather than the job title, and it is not only the attorneys and advocates who carry it. Criminal defense carries measurably elevated exposure. The research found criminal lawyers scoring significantly higher on secondary trauma measures than non-criminal lawyers, a gap attributed to case material and client contact rather than caseload alone. Firms, offices, and courts in Florida whose work runs through material like this carry more of it than a general commercial practice does, and their training needs differ accordingly.
These are competence issues, not comfort issues. They surface as missed deadlines, degraded judgment on live matters, ethics complaints, and the departure of lawyers a firm has already paid to train. If Florida is going to require the time anyway, it can be spent on the thing that is measurably breaking.
Florida requires 30 credit hours every 3 years. Of that, the ethics requirement is 5 hrs (ethics / professionalism / substance abuse / mental health). The reporting cycle runs every 3 years.
Yes. Rules on self-study versus live or interactive formats vary, and newly admitted attorneys are often held to stricter requirements than experienced ones. Confirm with the accrediting authority before enrolling.
Yes. Florida recognizes wellness or mental health credit: 2 hrs mental health & wellness (within the 5-hr block) Attorney Wellness Project delivers live, accredited programming in this category, taught by attorneys, judges, physicians, psychologists, and coaches.
Approved (The Florida Bar). Requirements change, so verify directly with the issuing authority before relying on any summary, including this one.
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