North Dakota’s Constitution guarantees openness.

Article I, Section 9 promises that “all courts shall be open.”

Article XI, Section 6 declares that “all records of public or governmental bodies … shall be public records, open and accessible for inspection.”

Those words should ensure every citizen equal access to the justice system.

In practice, however, North Dakota has built a two-tier court system, one for attorneys and government users, and one for the public that pays for it.

Attorneys and state agencies use Tyler Technologies’ Enterprise Justice platform (formerly Odyssey), complete with advanced research, filing, and notification tools through securepa.ndcourts.gov. These systems are routinely updated, patched, and recently transitioned to cloud storage.

Citizens, by contrast

See Full Page