§ 14-05-24 — Division of property and debts

1. When a divorce is granted, the court shall make an equitable distribution of the
property and debts of the parties. Except as may be required by federal law for specific
property, the valuation date for marital property and debt is the date mutually agreed
upon between the parties. If the parties do not mutually agree upon a valuation date,
the valuation date for marital property and debt is sixty days before the initially
scheduled trial date. If there is a substantial change in value of an asset or debt
between the date of valuation and the date of trial, the court may adjust the valuation
of that asset or debt as necessary to effect an equitable distribution and shall make
specific findings that another date of valuation is fair and equitable.
2. If one party to the divorce is covered by the civil service retirement system or other
government pension system in lieu of social security and is not entitled to receive full
social security benefits and the other party is a social security recipient, in making an
equitable distribution award, the court shall compute what the present value of the
social security benefits would have been to the party with the government pension
during the covered period and subtract that amount from the value of the government
pension in order to determine the government pension's marital portion.

3. The court may redistribute property and debts in a postjudgment proceeding if a party
has failed to disclose property and debts as required by rules adopted by the supreme
court or the party fails to comply with the terms of a court order distributing property
and debts.