Florida Registered Paralegal Routes And Fees

The Florida Registered Paralegal

Trevor Rupe, Contributor at Savo Media Group

Last updated October 9, 2026

Registrants Florida Bar News

4,661

July 30, 2024

Application fee The Florida Bar

$145

$150 a year to renew

Continuing education The Florida Bar

30 hours

every 3 years, 5 ethics, 3 technology

Required to work? The Florida Bar

registration is voluntary

The Florida Registered Paralegal At A Glance

The Florida Registered Paralegal (FRP) is a voluntary registration The Florida Bar runs under chapter 20 of its rules. It's not a license and not required to work.
There are three routes: a degree plus one to four years of paralegal experience, NFPA or NALA certification, or a lawyer's attestation to five of the last eight years of paralegal work.

Applicants must be working as paralegals for a member of The Florida Bar, and a paralegal certificate alone doesn't count as a degree.
It costs $145 to apply and $150 a year to renew, with 30 hours of continuing education every three years.
Using the title paralegal to serve the public directly, without a lawyer's supervision, is unlicensed practice of law in Florida.

Florida doesn't license paralegals and doesn't require them to register. What The Florida Bar offers is a registration for paralegals who meet its standards, set out in chapter 20 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar, and a set of rules about who may use the title at all. Both changed recently: a work-experience route opened on July 8, 2024, and the rule on eligibility was amended again effective October 1, 2026. Everything below is from the Bar's rules and its program page, read on October 1, 2026.

A Florida Registered Paralegal (FRP) is a paralegal who has met the education, training, certification and work experience required for voluntary registration as set forth in Chapter 20 of the Rules Regulating the Florida Bar.
The Florida Bar, Florida Registered Paralegal program

The Three Routes To Registration

1. Education Plus Paralegal Experience

Rule 20-3.1 pairs each degree with a minimum of paralegal work experience:

Florida Registered Paralegal education routes
Education	Paralegal work experience
Bachelor's in paralegal studies, from an approved program	1 year of paralegal work experience
Any other bachelor's or higher degree (not a JD), from an accredited school	3 years
Associate's in paralegal studies, from an approved program	2 years
Any associate's degree, from an accredited school	4 years
A JD from a law school accredited by an agency the Florida admissions rules describe	1 year, or a law license in good standing in another U.S. jurisdiction

An "approved" paralegal program, in the Bar's rules, is one the ABA has approved, or one that is an institutional member of the American Association for Paralegal Education and is accredited. Florida has 9 ABA-approved programs. A paralegal certificate isn't a degree for this route: the Bar says the education requirement takes an associate's degree or higher. The JD route changed on October 1, 2026, when the Florida Supreme Court's amendments took effect: it now refers to law schools accredited by an agency described in the state's bar admission rules rather than only to ABA accreditation.

2. National Certification

A paralegal who has passed NFPA's PACE or NALA's Certified Paralegal exam, and is in good standing with that body, qualifies without the degree-and-experience pairing.

3. Attestation

Since July 8, 2024, an employing or supervising lawyer can attest, on the Bar's form, that the applicant has done paralegal work for five of the eight years before the attestation, with a statement of proficiency. The applicant also needs 30 hours of continuing education in the past three years, including 10 hours of ethics or professionalism and 3 of technology.

Who Can And Cannot Register

Registration is for paralegals working under Florida lawyers. An applicant must currently be working as a paralegal for a member of The Florida Bar and primarily doing paralegal work, and only experience under a Florida Bar member counts toward the experience requirement. Work has to be recent: within the five years before an initial registration, and clerical work doesn't count. A person who offers services directly to the public cannot register, and Florida's rules go further than that:

It constitutes the unlicensed practice of law for a person who does not meet the definition of paralegal or legal assistant to use the title paralegal, legal assistant, or other similar term in offering to provide or in providing services directly to the public.
Rules Regulating The Florida Bar, Rule 10-2.1(h)

Fees, Renewal And The Title

The application fee is $145. Renewal costs $150 a year, due July 1 and late after August 15, with a $50 late fee. A registrant completes at least 30 hours of continuing education every three years, five of them in legal ethics or professionalism and three in technology. An FRP discloses the status at the start of a professional relationship, and the initials only meet that requirement when the word paralegal appears with them, as in "J. Doe, FRP, Paralegal". The Florida Bar News reported 4,661 registrants in July 2024.

BLS puts the median for paralegals and legal assistants (SOC 23-2011) in Florida at $61,000 in its May 2025 release; the 10th percentile is $38,830 and the 90th is $83,410. No source reports pay by FRP status.

Common Questions About The Florida Registered Paralegal

How do I become a Florida Registered Paralegal?

Work as a paralegal for a member of The Florida Bar and meet one of three routes: a degree plus paralegal experience (one to four years, depending on the degree); NFPA's PACE or NALA's CP certification in good standing; or a lawyer's attestation that you have done paralegal work for five of the last eight years, with 30 hours of recent continuing education. Then apply to The Florida Bar and pay the $145 fee.

Does Florida require paralegals to be licensed or registered?

No. Florida doesn't license paralegals, and the Bar says registration is voluntary: a paralegal may keep working without it. What Florida's rules do control is the title: using it to offer services directly to the public, without meeting the definition and working under a lawyer, is unlicensed practice of law.

Does a paralegal certificate count toward FRP status?

Not as a degree. The Bar says the education requirement needs an associate's degree or higher. If you hold a certificate, you can still qualify through NFPA or NALA certification, or through the attestation route after five years of paralegal work.

How much does it cost to become a Florida Registered Paralegal?

$145 to apply and $150 a year to renew, with a $50 late fee after August 15. Registrants also need 30 hours of continuing education every three years, five of them in ethics or professionalism and three in technology.

Compare Florida Registration With Other Paralegal Credentials

Florida's registration is a state program; the national certifications are separate, and two of them also open the Florida route.

NALA Certified Paralegal (CP)
NALA's two-part exam, open to graduates of qualifying programs and to experienced paralegals, renewed every five years.
NFPA PACE and PCCE exams
NFPA's two exams: the PCCE is open early in a career and the PACE is for experienced paralegals, both renewed every two years.
NALS Professional Paralegal (PP)
NALS's Professional Paralegal, whose individual exams are paused, and what its holders do to renew.

Every national paralegal certification compared in one table