Your state’s pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the North Dakota T&E solo who knows the Uniform Probate Code (N.D.C.C. Title 30.1) cold but still loses an afternoon a week tracking the current homestead number, the North Dakota Medicaid (ND HHS) eligibility posture, whether the latest North Dakota bar ethics opinion changes how you scope an engagement, or whether a recent Court of Appeals of North Dakota decision just moved the law on capacity, undue influence, or a trustee’s duties. What’s below is what mattered in North Dakota lately — the week’s developments and the recent rulings from the bench.
For licensed attorneys. This pack is general legal information and professional commentary for practicing attorneys — it is not legal advice, does not apply to any specific matter, and creates no attorney-client relationship. Verify every authority against the cited primary source before relying on it with a client. Published by Mike Moss, a Utah-admitted attorney, as an AI-enablement information product; it is not an offer of legal services and is not a representation that the author is admitted to practice in your jurisdiction.
Three developments from the last seven days that I think actually matter to a North Dakota T&E solo. Each one has a read that lands on your practice specifically — and each one comes with the citation so you can verify the detail yourself before you use it with a client.
Per the North Dakota Legislative Assembly, SB 2127 (69th Assembly, 2025) created N.D.C.C. ch. 59-22, authorizing electronic records, signatures, witnessing (including electronic presence), and notarization for nontestamentary estate-planning documents — trusts, durable POAs, health-care directives, and disclaimers. It was signed by the Governor March 26, 2025 and is effective July 31, 2025.
For a North Dakota T&E solo, ch. 59-22 is now the controlling authority on whether your trust, durable POA, and health-care-directive intake can run electronically — including remote ‘electronic presence’ witnessing. Confirm your engagement and execution workflows cite ch. 59-22 rather than relying only on the older Electronic Wills Act and ETA, so you are not under-using a tool the statute now expressly permits.
N.D.C.C. ch. 59-22 (SB 2127, eff. July 31, 2025) · ndlegis.gov · t59c22.pdf
Per the North Dakota Legislative Assembly, SB 2029 (69th Assembly, 2025) amended subsection 1 of N.D.C.C. 50-24.1-07 (recovery of medical-assistance expenses) and created ch. 54-68 establishing a state Office of Guardianship and Conservatorship; it was signed by the Governor and filed with the Secretary of State May 2, 2025. North Dakota recovers total medical assistance paid as a preferred claim against the estate of a recipient (55+ or institutionalized) and against the estate of the recipient’s surviving spouse, using an expanded estate definition reaching non-probate transfers.
Two planning consequences for a North Dakota elder-law solo: re-read the amended 50-24.1-07 before quoting recovery scope, since the recovery statute itself moved this cycle in one of the more aggressive, spouse-reaching states; and factor the new Office of Guardianship and Conservatorship into any plan contemplating guardianship as a fallback. Confirm your Medicaid-planning checklists reflect the SB 2029 amendment.
N.D.C.C. 50-24.1-07 (am. SB 2029, 69th Assembly) · ndlegis.gov · SB 2029 overview
Per the North Dakota Legislative Assembly, the 69th Assembly met in regular session Jan. 7–May 3, 2025; because the legislature is biennial, the 2025 session laws and effective-dates list are the authoritative record of all T&E and Medicaid statutory changes until the 2027 (70th) session convenes. Note the intel’s flag: as of June 2026 the State Bar Association of North Dakota has issued no formal generative-AI ethics opinion, so ND attorneys apply the existing Rules of Professional Conduct with ABA Formal Op. 512 as persuasive, non-binding authority.
For a North Dakota solo, this is the practical anchor: there will be no further statutory T&E or Medicaid change until 2027, so the 2025 session-laws baseline (SB 2127 and SB 2029 above) is stable ground you can build templates on for the biennium — while remembering there is no ND-specific AI guidance yet, so your own AI-use discipline runs off the general Rules and ABA 512.
N.D. Legislative Assembly · 69th Assembly (2025 Reg. Sess.) · ndlegis.gov · 69th Assembly
Decisions that bind a North Dakota practitioner — North Dakota’s appellate courts and the federal courts covering North Dakota, including the U.S. Eighth Circuit — read for what actually changes how you draft, advise, and plan. Trusts and estates broadly, not Medicaid alone: wills and capacity, undue influence, fiduciary duty, trust construction, and estate recovery. One read, the holding, and the official cite.
This lane reads each new opinion from North Dakota’s appellate courts and the federal courts covering North Dakota (Eighth Circuit) before anything lands here, and reads-and-discards matters that aren’t trusts-and-estates — criminal, family, commercial/LLC fiduciary, tax, and cases where an estate or trust is only a party. For this period’s trailing window, no new verified trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision from those courts was identified in the sources reviewed.
Nothing to re-paper from the bench this period; controlling authority is unchanged. When the next verified T&E ruling issues, it lands here with the holding and the official cite.
Controlling authority unchanged · North Dakota appellate courts · U.S. Eighth Circuit.
This week in North Dakota for the T&E solo with North Dakota Medicaid clients: the developments from the State Bar Association of North Dakota and ND HHS (Medicaid) that actually moved your practice this period — each one primary-source verified.
Bar and Medicaid changes land on different schedules and aren’t indexed by practice focus. Every item here was checked against its primary source, with the link, so you can verify before relying on it.