(a) Continuous session of district court. The district court is in continuous session in each county. Criminal and civil cases must be scheduled for trial in accordance with a calendaring procedure maintained and operated under the direction and supervision of the presiding judge of the district.
Rule 40.Assignment of Cases for Trial
Group VI: Trials · Last amended March 1, 2011 · Last verified July 15, 2026
In one sentenceRule 40 keeps North Dakota's district courts in continuous session, puts the presiding judge in charge of the trial calendar, gives a party 14 days after receiving notice of trial to ask for a continuance, and lets the court dismiss a case without prejudice once it has sat untried for more than a year.
Full Text of Rule 40
(b) [Deleted]
(c) Trial dates. All contested cases must be assigned trial dates by the trial judge under the direction and supervision of the presiding judge of the district.
(d) Trial date continuances. A party seeking a continuance must make a request to continue a trial within 14 days after receiving notice of trial from the court. The trial judge scheduled to hear the case must approve any request for continuance. If unavoidable circumstances are shown, the trial judge may waive the 14-day requirement.
(e) Untried cases. On motion, or on its own, the court may dismiss, without prejudice, an action or proceeding that has been pending and filed in which there has been a lack of prosecution for more than one year.
Explanatory Note
Rule 40 was amended effective July 1, 1981; January 1, 1988; August 1, 2004; March 1, 2008; March 1, 2009; March 1, 2011.
Rule 40 has the same purpose as Fed.R.Civ.P. 40. Rule 40 was amended, effective March 1, 2011, in response to the December 1, 2007, revision of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The language and organization of the rule were changed to make the rule more easily understood and to make style and terminology consistent throughout the rules.
Rule 40 was amended, effective March 1, 2008, to eliminate the note of issue and certificate of readiness requirement. Decisions on placement of cases on the trial calendar are made at Rule 16 scheduling conferences or as otherwise scheduled by the court.
Subdivision (a) provides for continuous session of district court, rather than distinct "terms" of court. The presiding judge is to oversee the calendaring process.
Subdivision (d) was amended, effective March 1, 2011, to increase the time to request a continuance from 10 to 14 days after receiving notice of trial.
Subdivision (e) provides for dismissal of untried cases after one year of inactivity.
The rule was amended, effective January 1, 1988, to make the rule gender neutral.
Plain-English Summary
Rule 40 starts from a simple premise: North Dakota's district courts do not close between formal "terms" the way older court systems did. Each county's district court is in continuous session, and both criminal and civil cases move onto the trial calendar under a calendaring procedure that the presiding judge of the district maintains and supervises. Once a case is contested, the trial judge assigned to it sets the trial date, again under the presiding judge's oversight. Subdivision (b) is marked "[Deleted]" — it once required a note of issue and certificate of readiness before a case could reach the calendar, a step the court eliminated in 2008 because scheduling decisions are now made at Rule 16 conferences or however else the court directs.
Subdivision (d) covers continuances. A party who wants one must ask within 14 days of receiving notice of trial, and the trial judge scheduled to hear the case decides whether to grant it. That 14-day window is itself an amendment; the rule used to allow only 10 days. The judge can still waive the deadline if unavoidable circumstances kept the party from asking sooner, so a late request is not automatically lost, but it does need an explanation.
Subdivision (e) gives the court a tool against cases that stall. If an action has been pending and filed for more than a year without any prosecution, the court can dismiss it without prejudice, either on a party's motion or entirely on its own. Because the dismissal is without prejudice, the underlying claim can generally be refiled — Rule 40 is aimed at clearing dead weight off the docket, not at punishing a plaintiff permanently for a lull in activity.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does North Dakota limit civil trials to specific court "terms"?
No. Rule 40(a) keeps the district court in continuous session in each county, so trials are scheduled through an ongoing calendaring procedure under the presiding judge's direction rather than confined to fixed terms.
How soon after I receive notice of trial do I need to ask for a continuance?
Rule 40(d) requires the request within 14 days of receiving notice of trial. The trial judge scheduled to hear the case can waive that deadline if unavoidable circumstances are shown.
Who decides whether my continuance request is granted?
The trial judge scheduled to hear the case must approve any continuance request. Rule 40 does not give that authority to the presiding judge or any other official.
What happens if my case has been sitting without activity for a long time?
Rule 40(e) allows the court, on a party's motion or on its own initiative, to dismiss a case without prejudice once it has been pending and filed for more than one year without prosecution.
What happened to the old "certificate of readiness" for trial?
Subdivision (b), which contained that requirement, was deleted effective March 1, 2008. Decisions about placing a case on the trial calendar are now made at Rule 16 scheduling conferences or as the court otherwise directs.
Source & verification. Rule text and the Explanatory Note are
reproduced verbatim from the North Dakota Rules of Civil Procedure, adopted by the
Supreme Court of North Dakota. Last verified July 15, 2026.
· Official source
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