North Dakota State Capitol in Bismarck.

The State Bar Association of North Dakota has proposed a novel way to fund the state's financially struggling law school: Hike up the fee to file a civil lawsuit and funnel the additional money to the campus.

Bar association president Zachary Pelham said in an interview Wednesday that the proposal was not based on law school funding models elsewhere, though he later learned that Arkansas uses a portion of court filing fees for its public law schools.  (Barry Currier, the American Bar Association's managing director for accreditation and legal education said he doesn't know if any other states fund their law schools in this manner since the ABA does not track that.)

Pelham testified before North Dakota's Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday in support of amending the state judiciary budget to raise the civil lawsuit filing fee from the current $80 to $180, with the additional $100 going toward the law school. That change would provide nearly $4.8 million every two years for the school, the state bar estimated.

“The law school needs attention,” said Pelham, himself a UND law graduate. “This idea provides a sustainable, long-term income source for use specifically by the law school. In recent years, the cuts made by the university administration to the law school have had a significant impact on the quality of legal education, in my opinion.”

Pelham could not provide figures for the amount of recent cuts to the law school's budget, and the school's incoming dean did not respond to a request for those numbers. But according to a recent article in the Grand Forks Herald about an effort by the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education to increase funding to the law school, the campus has sustained a 12 percent decrease in state funding from 2017 to 2018. Meanwhile, operating expenses have increased. Revenue generated by tuition has also decreased.

Pelham said the school's budget shortfall is manifesting in low faculty and staff morale, fewer faculty positions and challenges in recruiting high-quality students and faculty.

The law school's budget challenges and lack of funding for tenure-track positions were a primary factor in the school's recent failed dean search, according to the bar association. UND announced last month that current professor Michael McGinniss will be the next dean, after two external candidates were offered the position but declined it.

Pelham testified that the state's current $80 civil filing fee is unusually low. Neighboring Minnesota charges minimum of $295 for such suits, and Montana to the west recently upped its civil filing fee from $90 to $170, the bar association reported. The civil filing fee in federal court is $400.

North Dakota already earmarks portions of the existing $80 filing fee for civil legal service for low-income clients as well as a “displaced homemaker” fund.

The Grand Forks law school produces a large portion of the state's practicing bar, thus it is essential for the school to provide a high-quality education, Pelham said, adding that state lawmakers appeared receptive to the proposal.

“The legislators talking to me after I presented testimony have indicated an interest in some form of potential filing increase, whether it's the full amount we proposed, or something in between, to specifically provide funding to North Dakota's only law school,” he said. “What form that takes in the end, I can't say. But I think this is a good idea.”