It appears many New Zealand lawyers are intent on just beating the deadline on their Continuing Professional Development (CPD) declarations.
According to the
New Zealand Law Society, about half of all lawyers were yet to make their CPD declarations for the past year with just 16 working days left before the deadline. At 9:00am yesterday, data showed just 45% of lawyers have completed their submission, lower than the same time last year.
“If you can remember your password, the process will take a few seconds,” said New Zealand Law Society Professional Development Manager Ken Trass. “If you've forgotten the password it takes about a minute to sort that out. We've made it as easy as possible.”
Lawyers can complete their declarations by logging into the Law Society Registry with their lawyer ID and completing the declaration under the CPD section. Lawyers who have forgotten their IDs can refer to their practicing certificate or the bottom of each weekly LawPoints e-newsletter.
“I'm sure many lawyers don't realise they can make the declaration at any time. They seem to think they have to wait until 31 March,” Trass said.
Declaration of completion is due no later than five working days after the end of the CPD year, which ends on 31 March. That means lawyers would need to finish their declaration by 7 April.
“Information we collect on participation rates over the year shows that many lawyers have completed well over the required 10 hours of CPD but have yet to declare,” Trass said.
According to the Law Society’s data, this is the first time more male lawyers have made the declaration than female lawyers at this point in the CPD year. The highest rates of declarations so far are in Southland (59%), Taranaki (57%), Overseas (52%), and Marlborough (49%). Lagging behind are Gisborne (39%), Nelson (41%), Otago (41%), and Whanganui (42%). These regions are followed by Auckland (44%) and Manawatu (47%).
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