Welcome to your daily briefing on legal developments in South Dakota. Today we're covering 5 key stories including updates on south dakota legal headlines, background & context. Let's dive in.
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The State Bar of South Dakota's committees develop, implement, and oversee many State Bar goals and programs through volunteer leadership and expertise from appointed members.
Serving on an SBSD committee offers South Dakota legal professionals a direct path to strengthen their leadership skills, expand their network, and shape the future of the legal profession in the state.
The South Dakota District Court provides access to its CM/ECF (Case Management/Electronic Case Files) system through a dedicated lookup portal for electronic filing and case management.
SD legal professionals must use this portal to file documents electronically and access case information in federal proceedings within the district.
Reach professionals in this market
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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.
Arbitration clauses are most often struck down for procedural unconscionability — surprise placement, font that hides them, or no opportunity to negotiate — rather than substantive issues. A clause that is conspicuous, separately initialed, and accompanies a clear written notice of waiver of jury trial survives review in most jurisdictions.
A void arbitration clause means the dispute lands in court, often with discovery and jury exposure that the clause was meant to prevent. Drafting discipline at contract formation is cheap; defending the clause years later is not.
Beyond civil-rights and consumer-protection statutes, many SD 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.
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