# Title 10 — Attorney General

## Article 10-01 — Organization

## Chapter 10-01-01 — General Administration

### § 10-01-01-01. Organization of office of attorney general.

1. History. The attorney general is a constitutional officer whose duties are primarily legal in
nature. The office is not, for most purposes, an administrative agency. However, the legislative
assembly has determined that certain licensing functions should be under the administration
of the attorney general and some of these functions involve the adoption of rules pursuant to
the Administrative Agencies Practice Act, North Dakota Century Code chapter 28-32.
The attorney general is the constitutionally elected head of the office of attorney general. The
office includes a general counsel, assistant attorneys general, investigators, licensing
regulators, accountants, training officers, statisticians, and other necessary support staff.
Some state agencies have legal counsel with the title of special assistant attorney general
who are paid by the employing agency but appointed by the attorney general and are legally
responsible to the attorney general.
2. Divisions and functions. The office of attorney general of the state of North Dakota is
divided into the divisions described in this subsection. The organization by divisions provides
for supervision at a lower level and allows all of the portfolios to be assigned on a centralized
basis rather than by individual subject matter or attorney.
Each division is headed by a director appointed by the attorney general. The director of each
division is the primary contact person for that division and is responsible for the overall
management of the division.
The office includes the following divisions:
a. Attorney general administration division. The attorney general division includes the
attorney general, the chief deputy attorney general, an executive assistant, and a public
information officer for the office of the attorney general. The executive assistant may
serve also as the public information officer. The division is primarily responsible for
executive staff management, the agency's human resources requirements, constituent
resources, and serves as a liaison with the legislative assembly and elected officials.
b. Finance and administration division. The finance and administration division is
responsible for supervising office financial and administrative functions. This division
handles office budget matters, bill payments, data and word processing duties, and
procurement and support staff duties.
c. State and local government division. The state and local government division is
responsible for the successful and timely preparation, coordination, and distribution of a
broad range of legal services to state agencies, and professional and occupational
boards and has primary responsibility for all attorney general's opinions and letter
responses.

Attorneys assigned to the division are responsible for providing the necessary legal
advice and assistance to state governmental agencies, including the university system,
and occupational and licensing boards served by the division. When agencies or
occupational and licensing boards represented by the state and local government
division become involved in civil or administrative litigation, the state and local
government division coordinates the litigation with the civil litigation division.
The state and local government division also responds to law-related questions from city
attorneys and state's attorneys on noncriminal matters.
d. Criminal and regulatory division. The criminal and regulatory division is responsible for
the administration and enforcement laws dealing with alcoholic beverage licensing,
tobacco licensing, gaming licensing, polygraph examiners licensing, and transient
merchant licensing. The attorneys assigned to this division provide legal assistance to
the divisions of the office of attorney general involved in charitable gaming, sex offender
and felony crimes against children registration, and concealed weapons licenses.
Attorneys assigned to the criminal and regulatory division are responsible for meeting the
office's responsibilities to the state crime laboratory, the peace officer standards and
training board, the parole board and pardon advisory board, and state law enforcement
agencies, including the bureau of criminal investigation, North Dakota highway patrol,
and the North Dakota department of corrections and rehabilitation. The criminal and
regulatory division assists state's attorneys in criminal prosecutions, state and federal
post-conviction cases, and also assists the United States attorney's office in drug
prosecutions, and for other issues relating to the enforcement of the criminal law. The
attorneys also represent the attorney general's office with the state child protection team,
the child fatality review panel, the domestic violence fatality review panel, the human
trafficking commission, the task force on substance exposed newborns, and the sexual
assault evidence collection protocol committee.
e. Civil litigation division. The civil litigation division is supervised by the solicitor general
and is responsible for the overall coordination of all civil litigation and all civil appellate
cases involving or affecting the state of North Dakota. The civil litigation division's
responsibilities include:
(1) Civil litigation brought against the state, state agencies, state officials, and state
employees, except natural resources and Indian affairs litigation.
(2) Representation of agencies at administrative hearings, except natural resources
and Indian affairs, gaming, liquor licensing, and consumer protection hearings.
(3) Appeals to state and federal courts, except appeals involving cases in natural
resources and Indian affairs, gaming, liquor licensing, consumer protection, and
state and federal post-conviction cases.
(4) Debt collection and foreclosures.
(5) Representing and advising state agencies with regard to personnel-related
questions and litigation.
It is the solicitor general's responsibility to oversee cases involving or affecting the state
of North Dakota so the attorney general may be kept informed of the status of such
cases. Finally, the solicitor general is responsible for reviewing requests to the state of
North Dakota to join other states in state and federal courts as amicus curiae when
requested by other states.

f. Natural resources and Indian affairs division. The natural resources and Indian affairs
division is responsible for legal issues involving agriculture, water, oil and gas, the land
department, environmental law, the game and fish department, the parks and recreation
department, and Indian law. The division's duties include litigation and appeals in these
areas, environmental law enforcement, and the preparation of attorney general opinions
and letter responses concerning natural resources, agriculture, and Indian affairs.
g. Bureau of criminal investigation. The bureau of criminal investigation is the state criminal
investigative agency that responds to requests from sheriffs, chiefs of police,
prosecutors, judges, and public officials for assistance in criminal investigations. The
bureau is involved in the investigation, arrest, detection, prosecution, or suppression of
crimes when directed by the attorney general. The bureau of criminal investigation also
participates in the drug task forces and cooperates with and assists federal law
enforcement agencies and cooperates with and assists the federal bureau of
investigation and similar law enforcement agencies in other states in carrying on a
complete system of criminal identification. In addition, the bureau of criminal investigation
works with all North Dakota judges, prosecutors, and other law enforcement to establish
a system of criminal identification. The bureau serves as the state repository for criminal
history record information and maintains and publishes an annual crime report. The
bureau assists with the blue alert notice system and with information for lost, missing, or
runaway children. The bureau conducts or schedules training of all types for law
enforcement in North Dakota. The bureau operates the following sections in carrying out
its duties:
(1) Investigation, including general criminal investigations and narcotics investigations.
(2) Cyber-crime unit, including the investigation of internet crimes against children.
(3) State and local intelcenter, which provides criminal intelligence information to state
and local law enforcement agencies.
(4) Finance, including grant administration and business operations.
(5) Information services, including criminal records, uniform crime reporting, and the
automated fingerprint identification system.
(6) Sex offender and felony crimes against children registration.
(7) Concealed weapons license administration.
(8) Administration and support for the peace officer standards and training board.
(9) Support for the twenty-four seven sobriety program.
(10) Information processing.
h. Consumer protection and antitrust division. The consumer protection and antitrust
division is responsible for enforcing the state consumer fraud laws, investigating claims
of fraud, misrepresentation, and deceptive practices in the sale or advertisement of
merchandise, and mediating consumer complaints against businesses. The division
plays an important role in educating members of the public regarding consumer issues.
The division is also responsible for investigating antitrust violations and enforcing state
antitrust laws.
i. Gaming division. The gaming division is responsible for regulating, enforcing, and
administering charitable gaming activity in North Dakota. The gaming division performs
office and field audits and investigations of gaming organizations, distributors, and

manufacturers; ensures that the receipt, control, and disbursement of gaming funds are
accurate and according to law; reviews gaming tax returns; issues administrative
complaints; conducts criminal history background checks of applicants and officers and
stockholders of distributors, manufacturers, and Indian casino management companies;
provides guidance and trains representatives of organizations, distributors,
manufacturers, and local law enforcement agencies; and ensures compliance with five
tribal-state Indian casino gaming compacts.
j. Crime laboratory division. The crime laboratory division provides forensic criminal
examinations, including firearms testing, fiber analysis, latent fingerprint analysis, DNA
analysis, biological screening, and drug analysis. The crime laboratory also performs
toxicology analysis, including testing blood samples for alcohol concentration and
samples from the North Dakota medical examiner. The crime laboratory is also
responsible for training law enforcement to conduct breath testing to determine alcohol
concentration and to certify and repair breath alcohol testing equipment for the entire
state of North Dakota.
k. Lottery division. The lottery division is responsible for administering, regulating, enforcing,
and promoting the state's lottery. The lottery division selects and licenses retailers, trains
employees of retailers to use lottery terminals, sell tickets and redeem winning tickets,
assists retailers in promoting lottery games, pays high-tier prizes to players, ensures that
retailers and players comply with the lottery law and rules, and provides full
accountability to the public and legislature.
l. Criminal justice information sharing division. The criminal justice information sharing
division is responsible for developing policies, processes, and statewide information
systems to capture and provide complete, accurate, and timely criminal justice data. The
criminal justice information sharing division administers the portal, which is a secure
criminal justice information sharing hub, and the broker, which allows sharing of criminal
justice information in information technology systems. Additionally, the division supports
several statewide information systems, including a law enforcement records
management system, a jail records management system, and a state's attorney case
management system. Other programs within the criminal justice information sharing
division include automated victim notification and the common statute table.
m. Information technology division. The information technology division provides technology
planning and assistance services to all divisions of the office of the attorney general. The
division maintains data repositories for the key information obtained by the various
divisions of the office, including: sex offender and felony crimes against children
registration; concealed weapon licenses; gaming and other various licenses; criminal
history and other criminal justice repositories, including biometrics; crime laboratory
management system; lottery management; consumer protection management;
twenty-four seven sobriety management; crime statistics; and fire marshal and legal
billing. The division also provides information from these repositories in response to
open-record requests. The division maintains a helpdesk to support technology requests
for the entire office and for criminal justice organizations across the state that have
access to the data repositories. The division is also responsible to maintain a high level
of security for the computer infrastructure in accordance with federal bureau of criminal
investigation security policy; to forward appropriate criminal justice information to the
federal bureau of criminal investigation; to maintain real-time communications with law
enforcement across the state and the nation through North Dakota state radio and
criminal justice data information sharing for access to the information in the state's
criminal justice repositories; and to support those communications twenty-four hours a
day, seven days a week.

History: Amended effective September 1, 1982; June 1, 1986; September 1, 1989; May 1,1992; May 1,
1994; January 1, 2016.
General Authority: NDCC 28-32-02, 54-12-01
Law Implemented: NDCC 12-60-01, 12-60-05, 12-60-07, 18-01-01, 53-06.1-03, 53-12.1-02, 54-12-01,
54-12-17, 54-12-24, 54-12-26, 54-12-27, 54-12-32, 54-12-33, 54-12-34, 62.1-04-03
### § 10-01-01-02. Inquiries.

All inquiries, requests for records, and correspondence is to be addressed to the office of the
attorney general as follows:
Office of the Attorney General
600 East Boulevard Avenue, Department 125
Bismarck, ND 58505-0040
History: Effective January 1, 2016.
General Authority: NDCC 28-32-02, 54-12-01
Law Implemented: NDCC 28-32-02
