Annual Licensure
Online Annual Renewal
Starting for 2024, all attorney licenses must be renewed online. Please be patient as we work through the first online renewal of attorney licenses. We know there will be room for improvement next year. We welcome any feedback to barexaminers@ndcourts.gov. We will work diligently to quickly resolve any technical problems that arise.
The link to renew is https://northdakotacourtsystem.submittable.com/submit
Click here for a guide to annual license renewal.
Click here for a list of frequently asked questions regarding annual license renewal.
Fees
A person may not practice law in this state unless that person has secured an annual license from the State Board of Law Examiners on or before January first of each year. The license is valid for the calendar year for which it is issued. Billing statements are mailed to lawyers in approximately mid-November each year. Payment is accepted only by check or money order; no credit cards are accepted.
Fee schedule adopted and amended by the State Bar Association in June 2004:
$325 - one year or less from date of admission;
$350 - more than one and less than five years from date of admission;
$380 - five or more years from date of admission; and
$200 - admitted after September 1 of current year.
Under N.D.C.C. 27-12-04, $75 of every license fee is used to pay for lawyer discipline.
Keller Deduction
In Keller v. State Bar of California, the United States Supreme Court held that a mandatory bar may not fund
any activities with mandatory license fees unless those activities are germane under Keller. Keller also indicated
that a mandatory bar could satisfy its constitutional obligation to ensure that such activities were funded with
voluntary payments by adopting a procedure that allows dissenting members the opportunity to object, and
further deduct a pro rata amount spent on those activities. The Court also indicated that a bar association could
provide a mechanism to challenge the calculation of the deduction, similar to previous cases where mandatory
union license fees were in dispute.
Activities not germane under Keller v. State Bar of California are considered to be “non-chargeable.” SBAND
may use compulsory license fees of all members for all other activities, provided the activities are germane
under Keller, and these activities are considered to be “chargeable.” The method used to calculate the amount
of the license fees deduction is based on the method approved in Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson, 475 U.S.
292 (1986). In that case, the Court indicated that labor unions may use the year for which the most recent audit
report is available as the base line period for determining chargeable and non-chargeable activities and
calculating the cost of the non-chargeable activities.