421C.4  Debt settlement collection by designees.
  1.  As used in this section, “county attorney” means a single county attorney office or a group of county attorney offices whose counties have entered into an agreement pursuant to chapter 28E pursuant to section 602.8107, subsection 4, to collect delinquent court debt.
  2.  The centralized collection unit of the department of revenue and a county attorney collecting delinquent court debt pursuant to section 602.8107, subsection 4, are eligible to act as the state debt coordinator’s designee under the debt settlement program. If the centralized collection unit of the department of revenue or a county attorney serves as the state debt coordinator’s designee the procedures of the program established in section 421C.3 apply to the designee except as otherwise provided in this section.
  3.  a.  In order to be eligible to settle debt under the program, a county attorney shall first make application to the state debt coordinator requesting authority to act as the state debt coordinator’s designee. The state debt coordinator shall approve each application, upon a showing of commitment to collect delinquent court debt pursuant to section 602.8107, subsection 4, and upon reaffirmation to continue collection efforts pursuant to section 602.8107, subsection 4. A county attorney is not eligible to participate in the debt settlement program if the county attorney has been deemed ineligible under section 602.8107, subsection 4, paragraph “g”.
  b.  If a county attorney is approved to act as the state debt coordinator’s designee under the debt settlement program any eligible court debt settled that is more than four years old shall be deposited with the clerk of the district court as provided in section 602.8107, subsection 4, and distributed to the county in accordance with section 602.8107, subsection 4. For purposes of calculating the amounts distributed to the county, the amounts collected by the county attorney when acting as the state debt coordinator designee shall be considered as any other debt collected and credited to the county under the county attorney collection program pursuant to section 602.8107, subsection 4. The remainder collected by the county attorney acting as the state debt coordinator’s designee shall be remitted to the state court administrator as provided in section 602.8107, subsection 4.
  4.  For those counties in which a county attorney is not acting as the state debt coordinator’s designee under the debt settlement program, or for cases the centralized collection unit is collecting upon, the centralized collection unit of the department of revenue may serve as the state debt coordinator’s designee.
2010 Acts, ch 1146, §12, 26