The Supreme Court (SC) has decided to give incentives to examiners and lawyers who will serve in the 2022 Bar examinations this November.
The SC has yet to announce the dates of the online and regionalized Bar examinations this year.
In a resolution, the SC said Bar examiners and lawyers will be granted exemption for one compliance period in the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) required of the members of the bar.
MCLE is required of lawyers “to ensure that throughout their career, they keep abreast with law and jurisprudence, maintain the ethics of the profession and enhance the standards of the practice of law.”
It mandates that every lawyer “shall complete every three (3) years at least thirty-six (36) hours of continuing legal education activities approved by the MCLE Committee.”
The SC said that members of the Office of the Bar Examinations Chairperson (Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa) are also entitled to one exemption for MCLE compliance.
It said that other Bar personnel are exempted for one MCLE compliance “if they render actual service for four Bar examination days or partial credit of nine (9) units for each Bar examination day that they render actual service.”
“The exemptions are subject to the proviso that they have complied with all the prescribed protocols and instructions issued by the Bar Examinations Chairperson,” it said.
“The MCLE exemption granted under the Resolution may be applied to any compliance period and is subject to the administrative filing of the attestation of exemption under the MCLE procedures,” it added.
At the same time, the SC said that “for lawyers who render volunteer service as Bar personnel during the 2022 Bar examinations, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) has waived, by way of incentive, requirements for purposes of compliance with the lifetime membership requirements of the IBP”
Waived by the IBP were the rendition of 120 hours of legal aid service, and attendance to one regional or national convention of the IBP.
The SC said that judiciary employees and lawyers who are not employed in the judiciary can serve as local Bar personnel as floor supervisors, head proctors, proctors, and runners in their region where the Bar examinations will be held.
Those interested may apply online through: http://bit.ly/2022BarPersonnelNCR, http://bit.ly/2022BarPersonnelLuzon, http;//bit.ly/2022BarPersonnelVisayas, http://bit.ly/2022BarPersonnelMindanao.