RULE 11.8. LIMITED PROFESSIONAL GUARDIAN PRACTICE
Effective Date: 8/11/2021
Obsolete Date: 4/1/2024
(a) Purpose. The purpose of this rule is to authorize professional guardians of incapacitated adults acting as nonlawyer agents of a professional guardianship entity to prepare and file legal documents in specified uncontested legal proceedings. A professional guardian is defined by N.D. Sup. Ct. Admin. R. 59.
(b) Scope of practice authorized. A nonlawyer agent of a professional guardian legal entity who prepares and files legal documents or appears on behalf of the professional guardian legal entity in the following legal proceedings is not engaged in the unauthorized practice of law:
(1) Submission of beginning inventory reports, annual reports, final reports, and other routine reports required by statute or rule;
(2) Request for a change of venue to another state district court in North Dakota;
(3) Termination of guardianship due to death of Ward; or
(4) Discharge of guardian and appointment of a successor professional guardian legal entity. A nonlawyer agent of a professional guardian legal entity may only prepare and file legal documents for cases in which the professional guardian legal entity has been appointed.
(c) Contested proceedings. If a proceeding identified in subdivision (b) becomes contested, the nonlawyer agent of a professional guardian legal entity must engage an attorney to file any further documents and no longer may appear on behalf of the professional guardian legal entity.
This rule was adopted effective August 11, 2021; amended effective April 1, 2024. Paragraph (b)(2) was amended April 1, 2024, to specify that a motion, rather than a request, must be filed in certain instances.
Sources: Guardianship Standards Workgroup Minutes of December 19, 2022; October 13, 2022; September 19, 2022; February 9, 2021; January 4, 2021; December 7, 2020; November 2, 2020. Joint Procedure Committee Minutes of January 26, 2024, page 14; September 28, 2023, pages 4-8. Supreme Court Rulemaking of March 12, 2024.