Alimony in North Dakota: Who Qualifies and How Long It Lasts

In North Dakota, there is no such thing as permanent alimony. State law directly says the court "may not award permanent spousal support" — any support ordered must run "for a limited period of time." A judge must first find that the person asking for support actually needs it and that the other spouse can afford to pay it, and then the length of any award is generally tied to how long the marriage lasted, with caps that grow as the marriage grows longer. Support automatically ends on remarriage or death, and a court must cut it off early if the recipient has been living with a new partner in a marriage-like relationship for a year or more. (N.D.C.C. § 14-05-24.1.)

The basic rule: no permanent alimony

North Dakota's spousal support statute, N.D.C.C. § 14-05-24.1, is unusually direct on this point. Subsection (2) states that the court "may not award permanent spousal support" to either party, and that spousal support "may be awarded only for a limited period of time." That single sentence shapes everything else about how alimony works in North Dakota: even in a marriage that lasted decades, the support order itself is required to have an end date, a review point, or some other limit built into it rather than continuing indefinitely.

Who actually qualifies for spousal support

Before a North Dakota court can award any spousal support, it must make two specific findings:

• The spouse asking for support does not have sufficient property or income to provide for their reasonable needs, considering the standard of living established during the marriage; and
• The other spouse has the ability to pay support without incurring undue economic hardship.

Both findings come from N.D.C.C. § 14-05-24.1(2)(a)-(b). If a court can't make both findings on the evidence in front of it, an award of spousal support isn't supported under the statute.

Factors the court weighs

Once the court has decided support is appropriate in principle, it turns to a set of factors listed in N.D.C.C. § 14-05-24.1(3) — sometimes called the codified Ruff-Fischer guidelines in North Dakota practice. These include:

• Age of each party
• Earning ability of each party
• Duration of the marriage
• Conduct of the parties during the marriage
• Station in life
• Circumstances and necessities of each party
• Health and physical condition
• Financial circumstances, as shown by the property each party owns at the time of the divorce

No single factor is described in the statute as automatically controlling — the court weighs them together based on the facts of the marriage.

The three types of spousal support in North Dakota

North Dakota law (N.D.C.C. § 14-05-24.1(4)(a)-(c)) recognizes three distinct categories, and which one applies affects how it can later be changed:

• Rehabilitative spousal support — intended to restore the recipient spouse to independent economic status.
• General term spousal support — for a spouse who is not capable of being rehabilitated into self-support.
• Lump sum spousal support — treated as additional marital property, or as an adjustment of property and debt between the spouses.

How long support actually lasts

This is where the "no permanent alimony" rule gets concrete. Under N.D.C.C. § 14-05-24.1(5), unless the court makes written findings justifying a deviation, the duration of spousal support is capped based on the length of the marriage:

• Marriage under 5 years: support up to 50% of the number of months the marriage lasted
• Marriage of 5 to 10 years: support up to 60% of the months of the marriage
• Marriage of 10 to 15 years: support up to 70% of the months of the marriage
• Marriage of 15 to 20 years: support up to 80% of the months of the marriage
• Marriage of 20 years or more: a duration either agreed to by the parties, or a limited time set by the court

"Length of marriage" for this calculation runs from the date of marriage to the date the summons for the separation or divorce action was served — not the date the divorce is finalized (N.D.C.C. § 14-05-24.1(1)(a)). Because the exact math depends on precise dates and on whether a judge makes written findings to deviate from these caps, treat this as a general framework rather than a number you can calculate yourself with certainty — confirm the specific duration with your North Dakota court or a professional who can review your case file.

Changing or ending support later

What happens after the divorce is final depends on the type of support:

• Rehabilitative and general term support can be modified later if there is a "material change in circumstances" — defined in the statute as a change that substantially affects either party's financial ability or needs and that wasn't contemplated when the original award was made (N.D.C.C. § 14-05-24.1(1)(b), (6)).
• Lump sum support generally cannot be modified once the judgment is filed (N.D.C.C. § 14-05-24.1(7)).
• The parties themselves can agree, in writing in the judgment, to limit or preclude modification altogether (N.D.C.C. § 14-05-24.1(8)).

Time-sensitive note: Unless the parties have agreed otherwise in writing, support ends automatically when the recipient remarries or dies. The court is also required to terminate support if it finds — by a preponderance of the evidence — that the recipient has habitually cohabited with another person in a relationship analogous to marriage for one year or more (N.D.C.C. § 14-05-24.1(9)-(10)). If you are the paying spouse and believe your ex-spouse has remarried or has been living with a new partner for a year or longer, that is a fact pattern worth raising with the court promptly, since support does not stop on its own just because the underlying facts changed — someone typically has to bring it to the court's attention.

Alimony and bankruptcy

If either spouse later files for bankruptcy, spousal support gets special federal protection. Under federal bankruptcy law, a "domestic support obligation" — which includes alimony and child support — generally cannot be wiped out in bankruptcy (11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(5)), and it is paid ahead of most other unsecured debts in a bankruptcy case (11 U.S.C. § 507(a)(1)). Property-settlement debts owed to an ex-spouse under a divorce decree are also generally non-dischargeable in a standard Chapter 7 bankruptcy (11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(15)). In practice, this means a spouse who owes support usually cannot use bankruptcy to escape that obligation.

What you can do in North Dakota

1. Gather your financial picture first. Because the court's threshold findings turn on need and ability to pay, pull together income, expenses, property, and debt for both spouses before your hearing.
2. Identify which type of support you're asking for or defending against — rehabilitative, general term, or lump sum — since each is treated differently for future modification.
3. Calculate the length of the marriage from the marriage date to the date the summons was served, not the final divorce date, since that is the figure the duration caps are built on.
4. Ask the court (or your attorney) to walk through the § 14-05-24.1(3) factors on the record — age, earning ability, duration, conduct, station in life, needs, health, and property — so the reasoning behind any award or denial is clear.
5. Put any agreement about modification, duration, or termination in writing in the judgment if you and your ex-spouse want to limit the court's later ability to change the award.
6. Watch for changed circumstances after the divorce — remarriage, a new marriage-like cohabiting relationship of a year or more, or a substantial, unanticipated change in either party's finances — and bring it to the court's attention rather than assuming support adjusts automatically.
7. Check the current statute text directly at the North Dakota Legislative Branch's Century Code site before relying on any specific number, since state statutes can be amended.

This article is general information about North Dakota law, not legal advice for your situation — talk to a licensed North Dakota attorney about your specific case.