Javascript – jQuery Validation — Not validating

I am building my first ASP.net MVC application (not my first jQuery & jQuery Validation plugin application), and I am having a terrible time performing the client side validation with the validation plugin. Does anyone know if there is a problem using the plugin with jQuery-1.3.2.min that comes with VS 2008?

My code is as follows:

var v = $("#frmAccount").validate({
                rules: {
                    txtAccount: { minLength: 5,required: true  },
                    txtFName: "required",
                    txtLName: "required"
                },
                message: {               
                    txtAccount: {
                        required: "Account Number is required.",
                        minLength: jQuery.format("Account Number must be {0} or more charaters.")
                    },
                    txtFName: "First Name is required.",
                    txtLName: "Last Name is required.",
                }
            }); //validate
    $("#cmd").click(function() {
        if (v.form()) {
            $("#frmAccount").submit(); 
        } 
    });

……………………….
<form method="post" action="/Home/checkAccount" id="frmAccount">

<fieldset>

<legend>Account Information</legend>

<p>

<br />

<label for="txtAccount">Account Number:</label>

<br />

<input id="txtAccount" name="txtAccount" type="text" value="" />

<br />

<label for="txtFName">First Name:</label>

<br />

<input id="txtFName" name="txtFName" type="text" value="" />

<br />

<label for="txtLName">Last Name:</label>

<br />

<input id="txtLName" name="txtLName" type="text" value="" />

<br />

<label for="txtLName">Email:</label>

<br />

<input id="txtEmail" name="txtEmail" type="text" value="" />

</p>

<p>

<input type="button" id="cmd" name="cmd" value="Add" />

</p>

</fieldset>

</form>

When I try to submit the blank form, it returns the default "this field is required" next to the account, fname, & lname fields, but if I input any data into the fields I get various results.

I've tried to just perform the basic validate function (not returning the validate object to the v variable), but that produced similar results.

Have I just overlooked something silly here?