The face-to-face component of New Jersey’s continuing legal education requirement is being relaxed in order to minimize exposure to the COVID-19 respiratory virus, reflecting a trend that has begun in states across the U.S.

New Jersey lawyers must take 24 credits of continuing legal education from approved providers in each two-year period, and ordinarily half of those credits must be earned by in-person attendance at approved events. But with the virus spreading throughout the nation, lawyers may take all of their CLE credits through formats other than in-person attendance under an order issued Tuesday by Chief Justice Stuart Rabner.