South Dakota adds consent-based email service and referee record duties in support cases

South Dakota’s 2026 child-support act adds two provisions governing referee proceedings. One allows a referee to send a notice or report by email when the receiving party agrees. The other requires the referee to file the hearing exhibits and received financial and legal documents with the court when a party objects to the referee’s report.

Section 7 of enrolled House Bill 1045 limits the email option to notices or reports required to be served under sections 25-7A-6 or 25-7A-22, using the address the party supplies. It does not make email service automatic for every support filing or dispense with the party’s agreement.

Section 8 requires the record materials to be filed within ten days after the referee receives notice of an objection under either of those sections. It also requires the referee to maintain the exhibits and documents for thirty days following a signed order. The new filing requirement operates alongside the objection and court-review procedure restated elsewhere in the act.

The act also addresses earning capacity, income imputation, deviations, modification and arrearage credits. The enrolled text states that support orders entered and in effect before July 1, 2026 may be modified under the chapter without a showing of changed circumstances. That date is a dividing line in the modification provision; it is not identified here as a separately verified effective date for the entire act.

The official House Journal records the governor’s March 12, 2026 approval of House Bill 1045, and the official session-law inventory identifies it as chapter 121. The report focuses on the two expressly new procedural sections rather than treating every restated sentence as a change from prior law.