THE NEW HAMPSHIRE Minimum Continuing Legal Education Board will randomly select a group of lawyers this month for the annual audit of attorneys' NHMCLE Certificates of Compliance. The NHMCLE Board requests that the chosen lawyers provide verification of their attendance at all CLE programs listed on their 2002 certificates. If they have claimed carry-over credit, they must also verify their participation in 2001 CLE programs.

The NHMCLE Board's notice for the audit explains which forms of verification are acceptable and allows lawyers 30 days to respond. The best form of verification is the attendance certificate provided at all approved CLE programs and which the board has always encouraged lawyers to keep in their annual CLE files for two years to meet the requirements of SC Rule 53.6. Other forms of combined authentication are also accepted and are detailed in the audit notice, but none are as simple and easy to provide as attendance certificates from programs.

Jim Shirley, chair of the NHMCLE Board's Audit Subcommittee, says this process reminds lawyers that these attendance records must be accessible, available and up-to-date. "Every year, we see similar mistakes in the audit. Often it's carelessness of record-keeping that can be easily addressed within the office by making sure that attendance records are correctly noted and filed after each program," said Shirley.

"We sometimes find that lawyers have incorrectly claimed program attendance due to careless record-keeping. They may have erroneously interpreted as attendance a program registration or participation in an activity that does not qualify for credit in NH, such as reading CLE materials alone without the taped program that accompanies the materials." Shirley encourages anyone with questions to review SC Rule 53 on the NHBA Web site, under Continuing Legal Education, NHMCLE Information, or call Lee Jones in the NHMCLE Office at the Bar Association, (603) 224-6942 (the NHBA provides administrative services for the NHMCLE Program as a service to the Supreme Court).

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