Welcome to your daily briefing on legal developments in North Dakota. Today we're covering 5 key stories including updates on north dakota legal headlines, background & context. Let's dive in.
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The ND Secretary of State serves as the primary office for registering businesses and nonprofits, issuing licenses, and maintaining the state's central UCC filing system.
Legal practitioners in North Dakota must direct clients to this office for entity formation, compliance, and securing priority in secured transactions via UCC filings.
The North Dakota Secretary of State provides online booking and phone support for business and nonprofit registration inquiries.
Legal practitioners in ND can utilize these virtual or in-person Business Services team resources to handle client registration matters efficiently.
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Beyond civil-rights and consumer-protection statutes, many ND jurisdictions have fee-shifting provisions in landlord-tenant, mechanics' lien, insurance bad-faith, and construction-defect contexts. Pleading the fee-shifting statute in the complaint is typically required to preserve the right to recover.
A fee-shifting case has fundamentally different settlement dynamics than a non-fee case, especially in low-damages disputes where fees can dwarf the underlying claim.
Enforceability of employee non-competes varies dramatically by state and is trending toward narrower enforcement nationally. Common defects include geographic scope broader than the employer's actual market, duration longer than necessary to protect a legitimate interest, and lack of consideration beyond continued employment.
An overbroad non-compete is often unenforceable in its entirety, not just blue-penciled down — meaning the employer gets no protection at all. A narrower, defensible clause protects more than an aspirational one.
A preservation (litigation hold) letter is appropriate as soon as litigation is reasonably anticipated, not just after a complaint is filed. The letter should identify the matter, the document categories at issue, and the recipient's preservation duty. Failure to send one is the leading evidence of spoliation in subsequent motion practice.
Sanctions for spoliation can include adverse-inference instructions, monetary fines, and in severe cases default judgment. The cost of issuing a hold letter is one paralegal hour.
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