North Dakota · Open Records Law

The North Dakota Open Records Law, with its confidential and exempt tiers built in

AccessPoint manages open records requests under N.D.C.C. § 44-04-18 et seq. — the reasonable-time standard, the confidential (must-withhold) and exempt (may-withhold) tiers, and Attorney General's-opinion enforcement — pre-configured for North Dakota and running inside your own Microsoft 365 tenant.

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North Dakota at a glance

Response standard
No fixed clock — a public entity must respond within a reasonable time, and unreasonable delay is itself a violation
Enforcement
Attorney General's opinion within 30 days of a complaint; if it finds a violation, the entity has 7 days to comply before a requester may bring civil action
Exemptions
Records are closed only by a specific statute — confidential records must be withheld, exempt records may be — with mandatory segregation
Charges
25 cents per page (impression) and $25 per hour for locating and excising records, after the first hour free
Oversight
North Dakota Attorney General's office, then civil action in district court
Languages
English

Built for North Dakota

One platform for the whole access-and-privacy mandate, pre-configured for this regime and running in your own Microsoft 365 tenant.

Open records request lifecycle

Intake to release under N.D.C.C. § 44-04-18 et seq. — the reasonable-time standard, closure determinations, and inspection or copies — all on Microsoft 365.

Confidential vs. exempt — two tiers

North Dakota splits closed records into confidential (must be withheld) and exempt (may be withheld, at the entity's discretion). AccessPoint tags each record to its tier so the right rule applies.

Reasonable-time tracking

With no fixed statutory deadline, AccessPoint benchmarks response time and flags a request drifting toward unreasonable delay before it becomes a violation.

Segregation and redaction

Mandatory segregation of closed material from the rest of a record, applied on an audit-trailed redaction record tied to the confidential or exempt authority invoked.

North Dakota charges

25 cents per page and $25 per hour for locating and excising, with the first hour free — computed and disclosed before charges apply.

In your own tenant

Every request and record stays inside your own Microsoft 365 and Azure tenant — no third-party cloud, no cross-border transfers, and no per-user fees.

Confidential vs. exempt

North Dakota splits every closed record into two tiers — and only one gives the entity a real choice.

North Dakota's open records law starts from a strong presumption of openness: every record is open unless a specific statute closes it. But not every closure works the same way. Confidential records must be withheld — the entity has no discretion. Exempt records may be withheld — the entity may choose to release them anyway. Getting the tier wrong either over-withholds material the law makes releasable, or exposes information that must never go out. AccessPoint tags every record to its tier and enforces mandatory segregation, so only the closed portion — never the whole record — is withheld.

Confidential (must withhold) No discretion — confidential records are withheld outright.
Exempt (may withhold) Discretionary — the entity may choose to release an exempt record anyway.
Mandatory segregation Only the closed portion is withheld; the rest of the record is released.

Configured out of the box

Installing the us-nd-ors jurisdiction pack seeds your tenant with everything this regime needs — a starting point you can adjust, not a lock-in.

Pack content last reviewed: 2026-09-03

Related guide: FOI Workflow Quick Check
  • North Dakota's open records law (N.D.C.C. § 44-04-18 et seq.) as the legal-authority and citation spine
  • The North Dakota state-holiday calendar and reasonable-time response tracking, benchmarked to flag unreasonable delay
  • The confidential/exempt closure tiers, mapped for mandatory-withhold versus discretionary-withhold handling
  • Mandatory segregation of closed material, colour-coded for the redaction record
  • North Dakota charges — 25 cents per page and $25 per hour for locating and excising, first hour free
  • The Attorney General's opinion workflow — the 30-day opinion clock and the 7-day compliance window that follows
  • The civil-action escalation path once the 7-day compliance window lapses
  • North Dakota correspondence templates with statutory wording
A jurisdiction pack's detail panel in AccessPoint settings, showing the pack description, version, what's new, and the checklist of items it imports: legal authorities, calendars, request statuses, request types, extension reasons, requestor categories and consultation types Click to enlarge
What a pack looks like in Settings (the Ontario municipal pack shown): the description, the version and what changed in it, and every item it imports with its statutory basis. Anything you have customized is never overwritten on update.

North Dakota Questions

How quickly must a North Dakota public entity respond?
North Dakota's open records law sets no fixed clock. Instead, a public entity must respond within a reasonable time given the request, and an unreasonable delay is itself a violation of the law. AccessPoint benchmarks response time and flags requests approaching an unreasonable delay.

What makes North Dakota different — confidential versus exempt?
Yes. North Dakota closes records in two distinct tiers: confidential records must be withheld, with no discretion, while exempt records may be withheld at the entity's choice. AccessPoint tags every record to the correct tier so it's never withheld — or released — by mistake.

How is a denial enforced?
A requester may ask the Attorney General for an opinion, issued within 30 days. If the opinion finds a violation, the entity has 7 days to comply; if it doesn't, the requester may bring a civil action. AccessPoint tracks both the 30-day opinion clock and the 7-day compliance window.

Where does data reside?
Entirely within your own Microsoft 365 and Azure tenant. Requests, documents, and audit history never leave your control — no third-party cloud, no vendor access, and no cross-border data transfers.

Go deeper

AccessPoint for Alabama A brand-new response clock, layered on Alabama's 1981 Stone balancing test AccessPoint for Alaska Silence is a denial, then a two-step appeal — agency head, then superior court AccessPoint for Arizona Open records on a balancing test, no exemption list FOI request management software The full request lifecycle — computed deadlines, records collection, redaction, audit. AccessPoint vs. GovQA Granicus Records Request Management — requests only, vendor cloud. AccessPoint vs. NextRequest CivicPlus's public-records platform — strong portal, vendor cloud only.

Flat annual pricing, published in full. Every feature in every size — access requests, privacy impact assessments, breach response, complaints, video & audio redaction, and AI Assist. No per-user or per-module fees.

  • Under 500 employees$2,990/yr
  • 500–2,000 employees$7,990/yr
  • Over 2,000 employees$14,990/yr

See full pricing Build the business case

Run North Dakota's Open Records Law in One Platform

Try AccessPoint free for 30 days, pre-configured for North Dakota. No credit card required.

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