The legal system can be tricky to navigate for anyone without a law degree, and expensive for people without the means to hire an attorney. But court officials hope a new proceeding available in Burleigh County will help expand access to the courts.

Burleigh County plans to offer Domestic Relations Summary Proceedings, which will give some people a simpler and less expensive way to get divorced.

People of all income and asset levels wishing to represent themselves in simple divorce proceedings always have been able to get forms from the state Supreme Court simplifying the process. However, that route wasn't available for cases involving children.

The new proceedings are designed so couples with less than $20,000 in combined assets, excluding the family home, can present cases involving divorce and division of property to the court using a simplified process and forms. Uncontested child custody and visitation or child support issues also may be brought up in the proceedings. People involved in the summary proceedings can have the assistance of attorneys but are not required to do so.

"We're serving folks who can't hire an attorney because of the cost," Judicial Referee John Grinsteiner said. "This provides an avenue for parties who have children but have fewer assets."

Packets of information about the proceedings are available from the Burleigh County district court clerk's office, and hearings on such matters will be scheduled beginning in December.

Though the North Dakota Supreme Court developed a rule on a pilot project for such proceedings in 1996 and made the rule permanent in 2003, Grand Forks County previously has been the only county to use them, Donna Wunderlich, trial court administrator for the South Central and Southwest Judicial Districts, said.

South Central District Judge Gail Hagerty began thinking about bringing the Domestic Relations Summary Proceedings to Burleigh County about six months ago.

"We're seeing more and more people who are representing themselves or struggling to find an attorney," Hagerty said.

So, Hagerty, the district's presiding judge, tasked Wunderlich and Grinsteiner with developing a process for the proceedings in Burleigh County.

"I thought they were the right people for the job," she said.

Wunderlich spent hours developing the format and forms for Burleigh County's new proceedings, studying old divorce cases in the district court clerk's office, forms used in Grand Forks and forms provided by the state Supreme Court for people representing themselves in divorce cases.

The end result was packets of forms and instructions, which can be purchased from the clerk's office for $5. The packets contain step-by-step instructions for plaintiffs and defendants in divorce cases on how to fill out the forms and what they need to do at each stop.

"We tried to make it as simple as we could," Wunderlich said.

The plaintiff in the case will have to pay an $80 filing fee, and the defendant must pay a $50 answer fee. Hearings on the cases will be held in front of a judicial referee. For now, Grinsteiner will hear all of the cases. Wunderlich said they tried to develop the forms to the point that the cases won't require much work outside of court for referees.

The case can be moved to district court and handled as a typical divorce proceeding if a case is too complicated, the couple's net assets are found to exceed $20,000, or one of the parties so desire. If the proceedings go well, they might be expanded to other counties in the South Central and Southwest Judicial Districts, Wunderlich said. For now, anyone who has been a resident of North Dakota for six months can use the process to file for divorce in Burleigh County.

"The case would have to be filed in Burleigh County, and the hearing would be right here," Wunderlich said.

People who have children and use the process need to have custody and visitation issues decided before bringing the cases to court. The South Central District's Family Mediation Pilot Project also will work hand-in-hand with the summary proceedings, Wunderlich said.

The Family Mediation Pilot Project began in March and gives people a forum for resolving disputed custody and visitation matters through mediation. Though the pilot project has not been going long enough to gauge long-term results, Cathy Ferderer, the Family Mediation Program administrator, said it has been well-received so far. Ferderer said the agreements reached in mediation can be difficult to get into the proper legal language.

"We do at times see litigants in the Family Mediation Program who are pro se," she said. "Pro se" is a latin term which means "for self," and people who are pro se are representing themselves in court.

People who go through mediation but are unable to hire an attorney will be able to use the summary proceedings in Burleigh County to put their agreements to action.

Legal officials believe the proceedings will help alleviate the overload of people looking for free or reduced-cost legal assistance for family law cases.

Bill Neumann, executive director of the State Bar Association of North Dakota, said Legal Services of North Dakota processes applications for free or reduced cost legal assistance in the state. Brad Peterson, the supervising attorney at Legal Services of North Dakota, said budget cuts have limited the cases its lawyers can take, though they do handle some domestic-violence related divorce cases. More than 8,000 applications are processed a year there, and family law issues are in the top three reasons for applications, he said.

The cases Legal Services cannot take on are passed to SBAND, which tries to place cases through its Volunteer Lawyer Program, Neumann said.

"The overwhelming percentage of cases we get for our Volunteer Lawyers Program are family law cases," Neumann said.

Neumann said there's a "strong need" for people to get family law cases handled, and the summary proceedings in Burleigh County should help.

"I anticipate that it will fill a need," he said.

Peterson agreed.

"It's just very important … that people have access to the courts," he said. "We all realize there's a need."

Neumann said the proceedings also will help attorneys who are willing to take on free or reduced cost family law cases.

"I'm sure that a lot of lawyers will use the system when it's appropriate for their clients," he said.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@bismarcktribune.com.)