14 credit hours per year, reported every year (feb 28 report; mh per compliance cycle). Verified against the SC bar or court authority.
| Total CLE required | 14 credit hours per year |
|---|---|
| Ethics requirement | 2 hrs (incl 1 hr substance abuse/mental health per cycle) |
| Reporting cycle | Every year (Feb 28 report; MH per compliance cycle) |
| Wellness / mental health credit | 1 hr substance abuse / mental health / wellness |
| Online CLE accepted | Yes |
| Accreditation route | Approved (Commission on CLE) |
Note: Stand-alone substance-abuse/mental-health/wellness requirement.
Annualised, that is 14 hours per year, above the national median of 12 hours per year, placing South Carolina 14th of the 46 jurisdictions that mandate CLE.
South Carolina recognises wellness or mental health credit. 1 hr substance abuse / mental health / wellness This is the most direct route to satisfying part of your requirement with substantive training rather than a box-ticking exercise. AWP programmes 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.
South Carolina requires 14 hours each year, of which 2 are earmarked for ethics. That leaves roughly 12 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 South Carolina 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 South Carolina is going to require the time anyway, it can be spent on the thing that is measurably breaking.
South Carolina requires 14 credit hours per year. Of that, the ethics requirement is 2 hrs (incl 1 hr substance abuse/mental health per cycle). The reporting cycle runs every year (feb 28 report; mh per compliance cycle).
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. South Carolina recognises wellness or mental health credit: 1 hr substance abuse / mental health / wellness Attorney Wellness Project delivers live, accredited programming in this category, taught by attorneys, judges, physicians, and psychologists.
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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