How to validate a form with multiple checkboxes to have atleast one checked

This script below should put you on the right track perhaps?

You can keep this html the same (though I changed the method to POST):

<form method="POST" id="subscribeForm">
    <fieldset id="cbgroup">
        <div><input name="list" id="list0" type="checkbox"  value="newsletter0" >zero</div>
        <div><input name="list" id="list1" type="checkbox"  value="newsletter1" >one</div>
        <div><input name="list" id="list2" type="checkbox"  value="newsletter2" >two</div>
    </fieldset>
    <input name="submit" type="submit"  value="submit">
</form>

and this javascript validates

function onSubmit() 
{ 
    var fields = $("input[name='list']").serializeArray(); 
    if (fields.length === 0) 
    { 
        alert('nothing selected'); 
        // cancel submit
        return false;
    } 
    else 
    { 
        alert(fields.length + " items selected"); 
    }
}

// register event on form, not submit button
$('#subscribeForm').submit(onSubmit)

and you can find a working example of it here

UPDATE (Oct 2012)
Additionally it should be noted that the checkboxes must have a "name" property, or else they will not be added to the array. Only having "id" will not work.

UPDATE (May 2013)
Moved the submit registration to javascript and registered the submit onto the form (as it should have been originally)

UPDATE (June 2016)
Changes == to ===


  $('#subscribeForm').validate( {
      rules: {
          list: {
              required: true,
              minlength: 1
          }
       }
   });

I think this will make sure at least one is checked.