What Are the CLE Requirements for Indiana Attorneys?

Indiana attorneys must complete at least 6 hours of approved CLE every year and at least 36 hours in each three-year educational period.

Both minimums come from Rule 29 of the Indiana Supreme Court's Admission and Discipline Rules, in its current version effective July 1, 2023, and both apply: a lawyer owes the 6-hour annual floor in each year of the period and still has to reach 36 hours by the period's end.

The Indiana Commission for Continuing Legal Education, appointed by the Supreme Court, administers Indiana CLE.

Courses must be approved to count, so a program's Indiana accreditation is worth confirming before you rely on it.

Professional responsibility is the specialty credit Indiana's rule requires: at least 3 of the 36 hours in each three-year educational period must be professional responsibility, the rule's ethics requirement, measured across the period as a whole.

Our research found no required bias, wellness or technology credit recorded in the rule, so confirm the current credit list with the Commission before you plan around a specialty hour that is not professional responsibility.

The rule does cap two other credit types: non-legal-subject-matter courses can fill no more than 12 hours of the period's 36, and a private-sector lawyer can count at most 3 in-house hours per period.

Indiana's CLE requirements come due on December 31 — the rule's annual requirement and the three-year period requirement both fall due that day.

A lawyer who misses either owes a $150 late fee, which accrues on January 1.

Our research did not establish the reporting mechanics: how completed hours reach the Commission, or who certifies attendance, is not answered by the pages we read, so confirm the reporting steps with the Commission.

Lawyers admitted to the Indiana bar by examination must complete a 6-hour Applied Professionalism course during their first three-year educational period, which starts January 1 after admission.

Our research did not establish whether the course counts toward the period's 36-hour total, so confirm that with the Commission before counting the hours.

The new-admittee guidance our research read covers exam admittees; how CLE phases in for lawyers admitted on motion or by transferred UBE score is not established in our research.

Indiana is strict about CLE format.

Self-study courses, including downloads, will not be approved.

Distance learning can count, but only when the course is interactive and attendance is verified.

Our research recorded no hour cap for interactive distance learning in the pages we read — the limits we verified are about approval and format, not hours.

Whether a specific on-demand course counts as an interactive distance course is a course-approval question, so check the program's Indiana approval with the Commission before you rely on it.

Our research did not establish how extra hours carry between Indiana's three-year educational periods, and it did not record the specific exemptions Rule 29 provides for.

The rule's requirement clause begins 'Every Attorney, except as provided below,' so exceptions exist in the rule text, but the pages we read do not say which categories qualify.

Direct carryover and exemption questions to the Indiana Commission for Continuing Legal Education.

Missing the December 31 requirement triggers a late fee: a lawyer who has not met the annual or the three-year requirement owes a $150 late fee, which accrues on January 1 under Admission and Discipline Rule 29.

What happens if the requirement stays unmet after the fee accrues is not established in our research, so confirm the consequences of a delinquent requirement with the Commission.