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North Dakota court costs

North Dakota probate filing cost: $160

N.D.C.C. § 27-05.2-03(1)(a) directs the clerk of the district court to charge, in civil cases, "For filing a case for decision that is not under subdivision b or e, one hundred sixty dollars." A formal or informal probate proceeding is a case commenced for decision in district court, so the opening fee is $160. The statute lists the fee by case type rather than naming 'probate'; the § 30.1-23-01 affidavit route requires no court filing.

$160 is the amount the statute states. Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch October 3, 2026.

What the statute charges

North Dakota states one statewide amount rather than a schedule of components, so there is no line-by-line breakdown to compute. The figure above is that amount. It is a court charge only, and it is not an estimate of the total cost of settling an estate.

North Dakota publishes no component breakdown for this cost.

The statute states one statewide amount rather than a schedule of parts, so there is nothing to itemise. The figure shown above is that amount, and the linked source is the text that sets it.

What the $160 is made of

North Dakota’s $160 figure is a single statutory charge, not a total assembled from parts. It is shown here with its own provision named, and with the neighbouring charges the North Dakota schedule prices separately — the ones a filer is most likely to add to it by mistake, or to be quoted alongside it.

  • $160Civil case filing fee, N.D.C.C. s 27-05.2-03(1)(a)

Added together, these come to $160 — the figure this page headlines. If any component changed in the source, the sum would no longer match, and the build withholds the total rather than publishing a number whose parts no longer add up.

Charges the $160 figure leaves out

These amounts appear in or beside the same North Dakota schedule, so a reader can easily mistake one for part of the fee. Each is held out of the figure above for the specific reason given, which is the difference between an honest total and an inflated one.

Money already inside the total

Internal distribution of the $160 among state funds, subdivision (1)(a)(1)-(2)
the $160 fee is distributed by statute as "Thirty dollars of this fee ... civil legal services fund" plus "One hundred thirty dollars of this fee ... state general fund"; the two parts sum to the $160 exactly and are inside it, not additional charges the filer pays.

A value boundary, not a charge

Biennial ceiling on the civil-legal-services fund share, subdivision (1)(a)(1)
the "nine hundred thousand dollars in any biennium" is an aggregate ceiling: fees collected under this paragraph above that amount in a biennium are redirected from the civil legal services fund to the state general fund. It is a fund-allocation cap, not a filing charge anyone pays.

What the North Dakota figure leaves out

Other costs: probate cost lines.

Which North Dakota filing fee a probate attracts depends on what is being filed

N.D.C.C. § 27-05.2-03(1) is a civil fee schedule with a catch-all, and North Dakota probate work can land on either side of it. Subdivision (a) charges "for filing a case for decision that is not under subdivision b or e, one hundred sixty dollars." Subdivision (f) charges "for filing any matter authorized to be filed in the office of the clerk of court other than under subdivision a, b, or c, twenty dollars."

The gap between $160 and $20 is therefore about whether the clerk is receiving a case for decision or a filing that is not one. This site does not assert which subdivision a given informal North Dakota appointment falls under, because the section does not name probate at all; the clerk of the district court in the county of venue is the authority on that classification.

Subdivision (c) charges one hundred dollars "for filing an answer to a case other than under subdivision d or e," so a contested North Dakota matter adds a responding-party fee. Subdivision (g) charges twenty dollars "for preparing, certifying, issuing, or transmitting any document, or a lesser fee as may be set by the state court administrator" — which is the line that letters and certified copies run through.

Subsection (2) removes the fee entirely for public parties: the clerk "may not charge or collect any fee, prescribed by this or any other section, from the state or an agency thereof or from a political subdivision or agency thereof."

Source: N.D.C.C. § 27-05.2-03, read from the enacting state’s own published code on 2026-09-17. Quoted wording is the statute’s; the surrounding explanation is this site’s reading of it and is not legal advice.

Filing-cost source

North Dakota record: 4/4 verified, 14 matched checks, latest source re-fetch October 3, 2026. Source record · method · report a correction

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