The NALA Certified Paralegal (CP) is a voluntary professional credential for individual paralegals, issued by NALA.
Candidates qualify under three routes, pass a two-part exam (a Knowledge Exam, then a Skills Exam), and keep the credential current by renewing it every five years with 50 CLE hours.
This page covers eligibility, costs, renewal — and the CLA question.
What is the NALA Certified Paralegal (CP)?
The CP is NALA's individual certification: a designation a paralegal earns by meeting NALA's eligibility criteria and passing its exam, then maintains through continuing education.
NALA distinguishes a certificate — proof that you completed a learning program — from certification, which validates mastery against a professional standard, so finishing a paralegal course does not by itself make anyone a certified paralegal.
If you are mapping the options as a whole — the other national certifying bodies and the state-level certifications — our paralegal certification guide is the overview.
The exam has two required sections taken in order, and a candidate must pass the Knowledge Exam before taking the Skills Exam.
The Knowledge Exam runs year-round: 3 hours, 120 multiple-choice questions, of which 100 are scored and 20 are unscored pre-test questions.
It can be taken at a Prometric center, by remote proctoring, or with an approved partner proctor — remote proctoring is offered for the Knowledge Exam only, per NALA's testing-fees page.
The Skills Exam is a 2-hour written essay offered in February, April, July and October, graded on identifying relevant facts, spotting the main and secondary issues, applying legal authority, and drawing persuasive conclusions.
The credential's scale, per NALA's own statistics: 21,585 Certified Paralegals certified since January 1, 1977, and 6,665 active Certified Paralegals as of August 1, 2026.
NALA's CP program has been accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) since April 30, 2014, with an accreditation period NALA says runs to 2029 — and NALA states it is the only NCCA-accredited paralegal certification program.
That is NALA's claim about its own program, so read it as NALA's.
CP eligibility: the three routes
NALA's CP Program Handbook sets out three eligibility categories, and the route that fits depends on your education and how much paralegal experience you have.
- Category 1 — paralegal studies. Graduation from an ABA-approved paralegal program, an associate degree program, a post-baccalaureate paralegal certificate program, or a bachelor's in paralegal studies; or a paralegal program of at least 60 semester hours with at least 15 semester hours of substantive legal courses. This route is education alone, which is why new graduates of qualifying programs can sit for the exam without paralegal work experience.
- Category 2 — bachelor's degree plus experience or coursework. A bachelor's degree in any field, plus either one year of paralegal experience or at least 15 semester hours of substantive paralegal courses. Because the degree can be in any field, this is the route for a candidate whose schooling is not in paralegal studies.
- Category 3 — experience. A high school diploma or equivalent, plus five years of paralegal experience and at least 20 hours of substantive CLE completed within the two years before applying. An attorney or employer attestation is required.
Whichever route you think you fit, the handbook's criteria control the application — match your education and experience against NALA's current categories before you pay any fee.
CP cost: application fees and testing fees
CP fees come in two parts — NALA's application fee and Prometric's testing fee — so budget both.
As of October 2026, NALA's application fees are $325 for members and $375 for non-members at the standard rate; $150 for members and $175 for non-members at the student rate; and $240 for members and $280 for non-members at the military rate.
Retakes cost $150 per attempt per section, and a 3% service charge applies to credit card payments.
Prometric's fees are separate from the application fee: onsite testing is $63 for the Knowledge Exam and $53 for the Skills Exam; partner testing is $25 for each exam; and remote proctoring, where available, is $58 for the Knowledge Exam.
Military and veteran candidates get two breaks NALA spells out: NALA says the VA will pay the CP exam fee for qualified veterans, and NALA gives a 25% application-fee discount to active-duty service members, veterans, guardsmen, reservists and their spouses.
Fees change — confirm with NALA
CP renewal: 50 CLE hours every five years
The CP credential is valid for five years.
To renew, a CP completes 50 CLE hours per five-year period, including at least 5 hours of legal ethics, with no more than 10 hours of non-substantive credit and no more than 3 hours of technology credit — plus a recertification fee of $125 for NALA members or $175 for non-members.
Read the limits carefully when you plan the cycle: the 5 ethics hours are a floor inside the 50, while the non-substantive and technology hours are caps on how much of the 50 those categories can fill.
The renewal fee also differs by membership, so the member/non-member price gap is worth pricing against NALA membership itself.
Renewal is also where NALA's next credential comes into view: the Advanced Certified Paralegal (ACP) is available only to current Certified Paralegals, though anyone can take an ACP course.
The courses are web-based, run about 20 hours each, and earn up to 20 CLE hours.
CP vs CLA: are they the same credential?
If you have seen the letters CLA — Certified Legal Assistant — next to the CP, here is what our research can and cannot tell you.
The credential NALA certifies today is the Certified Paralegal.
NALA registered CP as a certification mark with the USPTO on July 20, 2004.
The NALA materials this page draws on — the CP exam pages, the testing-fees page, the 2026 CP Program Handbook and NALA's certification statistics — document the CP and, for current CPs, the Advanced Certified Paralegal.
None of them describes a separate NALA credential called the Certified Legal Assistant.
At least one state program does pair the two names, though: North Carolina's paralegal certification program, listing the national credentials it recognizes, names "the designation Certified Legal Assistant (CLA)/Certified Paralegal (CP) from the National Association of Legal Assistants" as one NALA designation.
Our research did not confirm NALA's own account of how the two names relate, so if a posting asks for a CLA or you hold one, ask NALA directly what it maps to today.
Two things do blur the waters.
NALA treats "legal assistant" and "paralegal" as synonymous terms, saying they are defined that way in state supreme court rules, statutes, ethics opinions and bar guidelines — so the phrase certified legal assistant reads, on NALA's own terms, as a description of the same professional.
And the certificate-versus-certification confusion pulls in the other direction: a certificate marks the completion of a learning program, while a certification validates mastery against a professional standard.
And employer usage varies too — some firms use 'legal assistant' for a secretarial role — so read what a posting or a program actually requires rather than the label it uses.
Career information, not legal advice. Eligibility criteria, fees and renewal rules change — confirm current requirements with NALA before you apply or renew.