North Dakota Divorce Forms: The Complete Packet Checklist

The North Dakota Legal Self-Help Center publishes every divorce form you need at no cost — but it hands them over as folders of blank PDFs, with no explanation of which packet applies to your situation or what order the pieces go in. Court clerks are legally barred from telling you which forms to use or how to fill them out. Here's what's actually in each packet.

Two Packets: With Children and Without Children

North Dakota's stipulated (uncontested) divorce forms split into two tracks depending on whether you have minor or dependent children.

Divorce No Children (DNC) packet — for couples who agree on every issue, have no minor children, have lived in North Dakota at least six months, and have no other pending legal actions. The packet includes:

• Summons
• Complaint
• Settlement Agreement (Form 3)
• Property and Debt Listing (Form 4)
• Admission of Service (Form 5)
• Affidavit of Proof (Form 6)
• Proposed Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Order for Judgment (Form 7)
• Proposed Judgment (Form 8)
• Confidential Information Form (Form 9)

Divorce With Children (DWC) packet — same core forms, plus an agreed-upon Parenting Plan (Form 5 in this packet) covering primary residential responsibility, decision-making authority, and the parenting time schedule. You'll also need formal child support calculations completed before filing. Eligibility requires all seven of: mutual communication, 100% agreement, residency, home-state jurisdiction under Chapter 14-14.1, no pending actions, non-deployment military status, and no active domestic violence protection orders.

The Complaint: What It Actually Needs to Say

The Complaint is the pleading that opens the case. It states the date and location of the marriage, confirms your North Dakota residency, cites your grounds — nearly always "irreconcilable differences" under N.D.C.C. § 14-05-03(7) — and sets out what you're asking the court to order on property, debt, and (if applicable) custody. Personal identifiers like full Social Security numbers, exact birthdates, and children's full names don't go in the Complaint itself; those live on the separate Confidential Information Form, which stays out of the public record.

The Affidavit of Proof: The Form That Actually Finalizes Your Case

In an uncontested filing, the Affidavit of Proof for Stipulated Judgment is what lets a judge sign your decree without a hearing. Signed before a notary or court clerk, it's your sworn statement — under penalty of perjury — that you meet the residency requirement, that irreconcilable differences exist, and that the property and parenting terms are fair. Get this one wrong or incomplete and the judge has nothing to rule on.

The Parenting Plan

If you have children, the Parenting Plan is the single most detailed document in the packet. It has to specify primary residential responsibility, decision-making authority (medical, educational, religious), and a concrete parenting time schedule — holidays, school breaks, and transitions included. Courts won't accept vague language like "reasonable parenting time"; the schedule needs actual dates and mechanics.

Where to Get the Forms — Free

All of these forms are published at no charge on the North Dakota Court System's Legal Self-Help Center. You should never pay a third-party document service for blank North Dakota court forms — they're free directly from the state. What you're actually paying for anywhere else is the sequencing: which form gets signed first, which needs a notary, and what gets filed together versus served separately. The state's own disclaimer is explicit — these are not official court forms endorsed for every case, judges aren't required to accept them if incomplete, and clerks cannot help you fill them out or explain the process.

That gap between free forms and a working sequence is exactly what trips up self-represented filers. The North Dakota Divorce Filing Process Guide walks through which packet applies to your situation, what order to complete and notarize each form, and how the Parenting Plan and Affidavit of Proof fit into the filing you actually submit to the court.

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