No — judges in Virginia do not have a separate mandatory CLE requirement; they are governed by the same MCLE obligations as other attorneys (unless otherwise exempted).
Virginia’s MCLE regime under Rules of the Supreme Court applies to all active attorneys (which by rule include judges when they are in active status).
Details
- Every active member of the Virginia State Bar must complete 12 CLE hours annually, including 2 hours of ethics/professionalism, and 4 hours must be in a live-interactive format.
- There is no provision in the MCLE rules or in Virginia’s Supreme Court regulations that creates a separate or additional CLE track specifically for judges.
- Some judicial training initiatives (e.g. for special justices in mental health commitment hearings) require particular education (e.g. 6 hours every two years), but those are not part of a broad judicial CLE regime.
Key Takeaway
In Virginia, judges comply under the same annual 12-hour MCLE requirement as attorneys; there is no parallel, separate CLE requirement for judges.