15 credit hours per year, reported every year (mar 31). Verified against the MT bar or court authority.
| Total CLE required | 15 credit hours per year |
|---|---|
| Ethics requirement | 2 hrs |
| Reporting cycle | Every year (Mar 31) |
| Online CLE accepted | Yes |
| Accreditation route | Approved (Commission on CLE) |
Note: Verify current specialized components with the bar.
Montana requires 15 hours every year. That is the most common requirement in the country: thirteen of the 46 jurisdictions that mandate CLE set the same figure.
Montana does not carry a separate wellness or mental health category. Wellness and secondary trauma training is generally applied toward the general credit requirement here. That is not a lesser category: it is the largest one. Of the 51 United States jurisdictions, 16 recognize wellness or mental health credit specifically and 16 mandate bias or inclusion credit, which means most attorneys satisfy this kind of training as general hours.
Montana requires 15 hours each year, of which 2 are earmarked for ethics. That leaves roughly 13 hours each year that you choose the content for. Those are the hours in question.
Judges are not insulated by seniority. In one study, 63 percent of judges surveyed reported at least one symptom they identified as work-related vicarious trauma, including sleep disturbance, difficulty concentrating, and interpersonal strain. Court staff and court interpreters process the same material without the professional distance an advocate's role provides.
Exposure is not evenly distributed across a bar. It follows the material. Criminal defense carries documented 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 and offices in Montana doing criminal defense carry more of this 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 Montana is going to require the time anyway, it can be spent on the thing that is measurably breaking.
Montana requires 15 credit hours per year. Of that, the ethics requirement is 2 hrs. The reporting cycle runs every year (mar 31).
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.
Montana does not maintain a separate wellness or mental health credit category. Such programming is generally applied toward general credit. Many states permit self-application of general credit using a certificate of attendance; confirm the process with the accrediting authority.
Approved (Commission on CLE). Requirements change, so verify directly with the issuing authority before relying on any summary, including this one.
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