More on North Dakota

The rest of what we have written about North Dakota. Every figure is quoted from North Dakota’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.

Free and low-cost divorce help in North Dakota

There is no public defender for a divorce in North Dakota, or anywhere else — the right to a free lawyer is a criminal-case right, and a divorce is a civil case. What exists instead is on this page, with the link to each one. Start with the fee waiver and the question of whether your spouse can be made to pay your legal fees, because those two are the ones people never think to ask about.

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The short version4 points · tap one to jump to it
  1. The five things to try, in this order
  2. Legal aid in North Dakota — Legal aid organizations are funded to serve people under an income threshold, and family cases are one of the areas they most often take.
  3. Worth knowing about North Dakota — You hire a lawyer for one piece — one hearing, one document, a review of an agreement before you sign it — and do the rest yourself.
  4. What we could not confirm for this state — Compiled 31 August 2026 from each organization’s own site, the state courts and the state bar.
In this subject 5

The five things to try, in this order

Ordered by how much they are worth relative to how hard they are, not alphabetically.

  1. Ask about the filing fee waiver. In North Dakota it is called Petition for Waiver of Filing Fees/Preparation Costs (Application to Proceed In Forma Pauperis). Form Form 1 – Petition for Waiver of Filing Fees/Preparation Costs; Form 2 – Financial Affidavit. Request must be made in writing to the court; instructions and both forms are posted on the ND Courts fee-waiver page.
  2. Ask whether your spouse can be ordered to pay your lawyer. During a pending action for separation or divorce, the court may require one party to pay temporary support and attorney’s fees necessary to enable the other party to prosecute or defend the action. (N.D. Cent. Code sec. 14-05-23 (Temporary support, attorney’s fees, and parental rights and responsibilities))
  3. Check the statewide legal-aid portal. North Dakota Legal Self Help Center lists the program that covers your county and what it takes.
  4. Use the court self-help service. North Dakota Court System Legal Self Help Center – Divorce. Forms and guides for divorce (with/without children); notes the forms are not official court forms and courts aren’t required to accept them; staff cannot give legal advice or help complete forms. Phone 701-328-1852, email NDSelfHelp@nd.courts.
  5. Try the bar referral service. State Bar Association of North Dakota Lawyer Referral & Information Service (LRIS). Call 1-866-450-9579 (a nominal consultation fee applies per Lawyer Legion’s description); no modest-means panel confirmed distinct from the referral service itself.

Legal aid organizations are funded to serve people under an income threshold, and family cases are one of the areas they most often take. Being turned down by one is not the end of it — the threshold, the caseload and the priorities differ by program and by month.

OrganizationWho it coversNotes
Legal Services of North DakotastatewideNon-profit providing legal assistance to low-income and elderly North Dakotans; apply in person, online, or by phone. Under age 60: 1-800-634-5263; age 60+: 1-866-621-9886. Offices in Bismarck and New Town, ND.

Worth knowing about North Dakota

  • North Dakota has only one law school (University of North Dakota); we could not confirm a specific family law or divorce clinic there, so none is listed.
The option almost nobody is told about

Limited scope representation. You hire a lawyer for one piece — one hearing, one document, a review of an agreement before you sign it — and do the rest yourself. It costs a fraction of full representation and it puts a lawyer in the two or three moments that actually change the outcome. How it works, and where it is permitted.

What we could not confirm for this state

Listed rather than filled in. Every one of these is something we went looking for and could not stand behind.

  • a law school family law clinic we could confirm is currently running

If you know one of these and we have it wrong or missing, tell us and we will check it and credit the correction.

Compiled 31 August 2026 from each organization’s own site, the state courts and the state bar. Legal aid funding and eligibility change, sometimes mid-year. Always check the link before relying on anything here. Corrections welcome.

Keep reading

Sources last checked2 September 2026
Page published2 September 2026
What this means. This is when the sources on this page were last read against their originals — statutes, court rules, official schedules — taken from the date this page was built from its sources. It is not the date the page was last edited. Adding a link or fixing a typo does not move it; re-reading the statute does. Law changes without notice, so treat anything time-sensitive as needing a fresh check. Where we get something wrong we publish it at thecusp.app/corrections with the date, what changed, and how long the error was live.