I have a working example of jQuery validate working in the link below. The newsletter checkbox is required and working. However, the "colors" checkboxes are all named as an array ( ex: name="color[]" ), and so the problem lies in the validation code, where it uses the name of the element to require elements ( ex: newsletter: "required" ).
$("#testform").validate({ rules: { // how do i name colors below? // colors[] ??? // fieldset#color_preference input:checkbox ??? colors: { required: true, minlength: 1 }, newsletter: "required" }, messages: { colors: "*Required", newsletter: "*Required" } }); Here is an example: http://psylicyde.com/misc/jquery-validate/demo/test-checkboxes.php