If you have a problem using JQuery validation with .form-group bootstrap as below :

Here the code to initialize the JQuery Validatation
$("#validate-form").validate({
errorElement: 'span',
errorClass: 'help-block',
highlight: function (element) { // hightlight error inputs
$(element)
.closest('.form-group').removeClass('has-success').addClass('has-error'); // set error class to the control group
},
unhighlight: function (element) { // revert the change done by hightlight
$(element)
.closest('.form-group').removeClass('has-error'); // set error class to the control group
},
errorPlacement: function(error, element) {
if(element.parent('.input-group').length) {
error.insertAfter(element.parent());
} else {
error.insertAfter(element);
}
}
});
