.0202 Accreditation Standards
The Board of Paralegal Certification shall approve continuing education activities in compliance with the following standards and provisions.
(a) An approved activity shall have significant intellectual or practical content and the primary objective of increasing the participant's professional competence and proficiency as a paralegal.
(b) An approved activity shall constitute an organized program of learning dealing with matters directly related to the practice of law, professional responsibility, professionalism, or ethical obligations of paralegals.
(c) A certified paralegal may receive credit for continuing education activities in which live instruction or recorded material is used. Recorded material includes videotaped or satellite transmitted programs, and programs on CD-ROM, DVD, or other similar electronic or digital replay formats. A minimum of three certified paralegals must register to attend the presentation of a replayed prerecorded program. This requirement does not apply to participation from a remote location in the presentation of a live broadcast by telephone, satellite, or video conferencing equipment.
(d) A certified paralegal may receive credit for participation in a course online. An on-line course is an educational seminar available on a provider's website reached via the internet. To be accredited, a computer-based CPE course must be interactive, permitting the participant to communicate, via telephone, electronic mail, or a website bulletin board, with the presenter and/or other participants.
(e) Continuing education materials are to be prepared, and activities conducted, by an individual or group qualified by practical or academic experience in a setting physically suitable to the educational activity of the program and, when appropriate, equipped with suitable writing surfaces or sufficient space for taking notes.
(f) Thorough, high quality, and carefully prepared written materials should be distributed to all attendees at or before the time the course is presented. These may include written materials printed from a computer presentation, computer website, or CD-ROM. A written agenda or outline for a presentation satisfies this requirement when written materials are not suitable or readily available for a particular subject. The absence of written materials for distribution should, however, be the exception and not the rule.
(g) Any continuing legal education activity approved for lawyers by the North Carolina State Bar's Board of Continuing Legal Education meets these standards.
(h) In-house continuing legal education and self-study shall not qualify for continuing paralegal education (CPE) credit.
(i) A certified paralegal may receive credit for completion of a course offered by an ABA accredited law school with respect to which academic credit may be earned. No more than 6 CPE hours in any year may be earned by attending such courses. Credit shall be awarded as follows: 3.5 hours of CPE credit for every quarter hour of credit assigned to the course by the educational institution, or 5.0 hours of CPE credit for every semester hour of credit assigned to the course by the educational institution.
History Note: Statutory Authority G.S. 84-23
Adopted by the Supreme Court August 18, 2005
Amendments Approved by the Supreme Court: March 2, 2006; March 11, 2010; March 8, 2013
