Rule 43.5.Exemptions

Rule 43.5 is a release valve for the mandatory hours the rest of Rule 43 imposes. Rather than applying the twelve-hour requirement rigidly to every judge in every circumstance, the rule lets a judge ask for relief, and it names the Committee on Mandatory Continuing Judicial Education as the body responsible for handling those requests.

The rule’s text does not spell out what circumstances justify an exemption or what evidence a judge must present. It hands that judgment to the committee, which already carries responsibility for approving qualifying programs and imposing sanctions, keeping exemption decisions in the hands of the group most familiar with the training requirements a judge is asking to be excused from.