Bootstrap With JQuery Validation Plugin
Answer : for total compatibility with twitter bootstrap 3, I need to override some plugins methods: // override jquery validate plugin defaults $.validator.setDefaults({ highlight: function(element) { $(element).closest('.form-group').addClass('has-error'); }, unhighlight: function(element) { $(element).closest('.form-group').removeClass('has-error'); }, errorElement: 'span', errorClass: 'help-block', errorPlacement: function(error, element) { if(element.parent('.input-group').length) { error.insertAfter(element.parent()); } else { error.insertAfter(element); } } }); See Example: http://jsfiddle.net/mapb_1990/hTPY7/7/ For full compatibility with Bootstrap 3 I added support for input-group , radio and checkbox , that was missing in the other solutions. Update 10/20/2017 : Inspected suggestions of the other answers and added ad...