1. A proceeding under this chapter shall be commenced by a petitioner, or a petitioner's representative, by filing a verified petition in the court in equity in the county of the state wherein the petitioner resides or is domiciled, showing the name, age, residence and circumstances of the petitioner, alleging that the petitioner is in need of and is entitled to support from the respondent, giving the respondent's name, age, residence and circumstances, and praying that the respondent be compelled to furnish such support. The petitioner may include in or attach to the petition any information which may help in locating or identifying the respondent including, but without limitation by enumeration, a photograph of the respondent, a description of any distinguishing marks of the respondent's person, other names and aliases by which the respondent has been or is known, the name of the respondent's employer, the respondent's fingerprints, or social security number.
2. If the respondent be a resident of or domiciled in such state and the court has or can acquire jurisdiction of the person of the respondent under existing laws in effect in such state, such laws shall govern and control the procedure to be followed in such proceeding.
3. If the court of this state acting as an initiating state finds that the petition sets forth facts from which it may be determined that the respondent owes a duty of support and that a court of the responding state may obtain jurisdiction of the respondent or the respondent's property, it shall so certify and shall cause three copies of (a) the petition (b) its certificate and (c) this chapter to be transmitted to the court in the responding state. If the name and address of such court is unknown and the responding state has an information agency comparable to that established in the initiating state it shall cause such copies to be transmitted to the state information agency or other proper official of the responding state, with a request that it forward them to the proper court, and that the court of the responding state acknowledge their receipt to the court of the initiating state.
4. When the court of this state, acting as a responding state, receives from the court of an initiating state the aforesaid copies, it shall docket the cause, notify the county attorney or other official acting as petitioner's representative, set a time and place for a hearing, and take such action as is necessary in accordance with the laws of this state to serve notice and thus obtain jurisdiction over the respondent. If a court of the state, acting as a responding state, is unable to obtain jurisdiction of the respondent or the respondent's property due to inaccuracies or inadequacies in the petition or otherwise, the court shall communicate this fact to the court in the initiating state, shall on its own initiative use all means at its disposal to trace the respondent or the respondent's property, and shall hold the case pending the receipt of more accurate information or an amended petition from the court in the initiating state.
However, if the court of the responding state is unable to obtain jurisdiction because the respondent resides in or is domiciled or found in another county of the responding state, the papers received from the court of the initiating state may be forwarded by the court of the responding state which received the papers to the court of the county in the responding state in which the respondent resides or is domiciled or found, and the court of the initiating state shall be notified of the transfer. The court of the county where the respondent resides or is domiciled or found shall acknowledge receipt of the papers to both the court of the initiating state and the court of the responding state which forwarded them, and shall take full jurisdiction of the proceedings with the same powers as if it had received the papers directly from the court of the initiating state.
5. It shall not be necessary for the petitioner or the petitioner's witnesses to appear personally at such hearing, but it shall be the duty of the petitioner's representative of the responding state to appear on behalf of and represent the petitioner at all stages of the proceeding.
6. If at such hearing the respondent controverts the petition and enters a verified denial of any of the material allegations thereof, the judge presiding at such hearing shall stay the proceedings and transmit to the judge of the court in the initiating state a transcript of the clerk's minutes showing the denials entered by the respondent.
7. Upon receipt by the judge of the court in the initiating state of such transcript, such court shall take such proof, including the testimony of the petitioner and the petitioner's witnesses and such other evidence as the court may deem proper, and, after due deliberation, the court shall make its recommendation, based on all of such proof and evidence, and shall transmit to the court in the responding state an exemplified transcript of such proof and evidence and of its proceedings and recommendation in connection therewith.
8. Upon the receipt of such transcript, the court in the responding state shall resume its hearing in the proceeding and shall give the respondent a reasonable opportunity to appear and reply.
9. Upon the resumption of such hearing, the respondent shall have the right to examine or cross-examine the petitioner and the petitioner's witnesses by means of depositions or written interrogatories, and the petitioner shall have the right to examine or cross-examine the respondent and the respondent's witnesses by means of depositions or written interrogatories.
10. If a respondent, duly summoned by a court in the responding state, willfully fails without good cause to appear as directed in the summons, the respondent shall be punished in the same manner and to the same extent as is provided by law for the punishment of a defendant or witness who willfully disobeys a summons or subpoena duly issued out of such court in any other action or proceeding cognizable by said court.
11. If, on the return day of the summons, the respondent appears at the time and place specified in the summons and fails to answer the petition or admits the allegations of the petition, or, if, after a hearing has been duly held by the court in the responding state in accordance with this section, the court has found and determined that the prayer of the petitioner, or any part of the prayer, is supported by the evidence adduced in the proceeding, and that the petitioner is in need of and entitled to support from the respondent, the court shall make and enter an order directing the respondent to furnish support to the petitioner and to pay a sum as the court determines pursuant to section 598.21, subsection 4. A certified copy of the order shall be transmitted by the court to the court in the initiating state and the copy shall be filed with and made a part of the records of the court in the proceeding. Upon entry of an order for support or upon failure of a person to make payments pursuant to an order for support, the court may require the respondent to provide security, a bond, or other guarantee which the court determines is satisfactory to secure the payment of the support. Upon the respondent's failure to pay the support under the order, the court may declare the security, bond, or other guarantee forfeited.
12. The court making such order may require the respondent to make payment at specified intervals to the clerk of the district court, or to the dependent, or to any state or county agency, and to report personally to the sheriff or any other official, at such times as may be deemed necessary.
13. A respondent who shall willfully fail to comply with or violate the terms or conditions of the support order or of the respondent's probation shall be punished by the court in the same manner and to the same extent as is provided by law for a contempt of such court or a violation of probation ordered by such court in any other suit or proceeding cognizable by such court.
14. The court of this state when acting as a responding state shall have the following duties which may be carried out through the clerk of the court: Upon receipt of a payment made by the respondent pursuant to any order of the court or otherwise, to transmit the same forthwith to the court of the initiating state, and upon request to furnish to the court of the initiating state a certified statement of all payments made by the respondent.
15. Except as provided in section 252A.20, any order of support issued by a court of the state acting as a responding state shall not supersede any previous order of support issued in a divorce or separate maintenance action, but the amounts for a particular period paid pursuant to either order shall be credited against amounts accruing or accrued for the same period under both. This subsection also applies to orders entered following an administrative process including, but not limited to, the administrative processes provided pursuant to chapters 252C and 252F.
16. The court of the initiating state shall receive and accept all payments made by the respondent to the probation department or bureau of the court of the responding state and transmitted by the latter on behalf of the respondent. Upon receipt of any such payment, and under such rules as the court of the initiating state may prescribe, the court, or its probation department or bureau, as the court may direct, shall deliver such payment to the dependent person entitled thereto, take a proper receipt and acquittance therefor, and keep a permanent record thereof.
17. A court or administrative agency of a state that has issued a child support order consistent with 28 U.S.C. § 1738B has continuing, exclusive jurisdiction over the order if the state is the state in which the child is residing or the state is the residence of the petitioner or respondent unless the court or administrative agency of another state, acting in accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 1738B, has modified the order.
[C50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, § 252A.6]
85 Acts, ch 100, § 1; 89 Acts, ch 166, § 3; 93 Acts, ch 79, §35; 96 Acts, ch 1141, § 19, 20
Referred to in § 252A.6A, 252A.13, 602.8102(47)
Iowa General Assembly
Search: Iowa Code 1997
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