Great LEXpectations

Now that you have successfully submitted your 2017 AMR and MCPD report for April 1, 2018, what’s next? Might be hard to believe but even though you may have just completed your 2017 report, we are already entering the second quarter of 2018. So there is no time like the present to dive in and develop a Continuing Professional plan for the year.

Remember Your Annual MCPD activities must be completed in the current calendar Year.

This means your required 12 CPD hours for 2018 must be completed between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2018. So while the actual report for these hours is not due until the following year (April 1, 2019), the clock has already begun for 2018. It’s time to put your 2018 Continuing Professional Development plan into action !

There is No Need to Wait

Having trouble remembering the exact details for a programs you completed earlier in the year? Don’t wait to fill this information in. Details about CPD activities can be entered into the CPD Tracker at any time during the year, just make sure to click submit!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions ~ It’s your Responsibility to find Relevant CPD

Take the time to explore the many, many CPD options available to you and avoid the end of year scramble to complete your hours. On top of regular classroom style CPD programming, the Law Society also has many alternative cost effective and convenient CPD options including DVD replays, cpdonline and webinars which offer group discounts.

Additionally, there are plenty of alternatives outside the Law Society including other continuing legal education providers like, the Canadian Bar Association, in-house programs offered by law firms or even organized education discussion like the Manitoba Bar Association section meetings. Furthermore, teaching CPD sessions on a topic relevant to your practice is another great option to meet your CPD requirement. Eligible hours for teaching includes the preparation time required beforehand.

If you consider the wide range of CPD options available you will have no problem finding interesting and useful professional development opportunities.

To begin, check out the Law Society CPD Program page, which is regularly updated with new programming. If you don’t see a program that interests you, why not explore another CPD provider? For some ideas on where to look here is a brief list of CPD providers  to get you started!

Still receiving friendly reminders from the Law Society about your AMR (Annual Member Report) and MCPD (Mandatory Continuing Professional Development) Report and not sure why?… “I could have sworn I submitted that weeks ago”.

Here are a few common pitfalls that may explain why your report was not successfully filed.

Both the AMR & MCPD Reports Must be Completed

The MCPD Report is part of the AMR. When completing your AMR there is a section that asks you to confirm you have submitted your MCPD report. For the AMR to be successfully submitted members must ensure that their CPD activities are recorded in the CPD Tracker and then also confirm (by checking the box) in the AMR that they have reported their required MCPD hours.

Note those programs taken through the Law Society of Manitoba will automatically be populated into your CPD tracker. However, any courses completed outside the Law Society with another CPD provider, like the Manitoba Bar Association, must be manually entered by the member. So when the AMR asks you to confirm that “you are satisfied that your CPD tracker is complete” be sure to review and confirm that the information in your CPD Tracker is correct.

Don’t forget to Click “Submit”!

Once you have taken the time to complete both the CPD Tracker and the AMR save yourself the headache of having to redo this form by remembering to click submit at the very end. The information you enter when going through these forms is  not automatically saved, therefore you cannot leave the member’s portal without clicking “Submit” and expect to return at any time to pick up where you left off.

If you need to go back and edit either the AMR or MCPD Report you may do so until April 1…even if you have clicked “Submit”.

Look at your “Checklist” to Confirm that your Reports have been Successfully Submitted

When you log in to your Members’ Portal the first thing you will now see on the homepage is a checklist outlining the status for various Law Society items and their associated deadlines. This allows you to quickly review the status of any item requiring your response with the completed items highlighted in GREEN and YELLOW for those items not yet submitted.