600A.6B  Payment of attorney fees.
  1.  A person filing a petition for termination of parental rights under this chapter shall be responsible for the payment of reasonable attorney fees for services provided by counsel appointed pursuant to section 600A.6A in juvenile court or in an appellate proceeding initiated by the person filing the petition unless the person filing the petition is a private child-placing agency licensed under chapter 238 or the court determines that the person filing the petition is indigent.
  2.  If the person filing the petition is a private child-placing agency licensed under chapter 238 or if the person filing the petition is indigent, the prospective parent on whose behalf the petition is filed shall be responsible for the payment of reasonable attorney fees for services provided in juvenile court or an appellate proceeding for counsel appointed pursuant to section 600A.6A unless the court determines that the prospective parent on whose behalf the petition is filed is indigent.
  3.  If the prospective parent on whose behalf the petition is filed is indigent, and if the person filing the petition is indigent or a private child-placing agency licensed under chapter 238, the appointed counsel shall be paid reasonable attorney fees as determined by the state public defender from the indigent defense fund established in section 815.11.
  4.  If the parent against whom the petition is filed appeals a termination order under section 600A.9, subsection 1, paragraph “b”, the person who filed the petition or the person on whose behalf the petition is filed shall not be responsible for the payment of attorney fees for services provided by counsel appointed pursuant to section 600A.6A in the appellate proceeding. Instead, the appointed attorney shall be paid reasonable attorney fees as determined by the state public defender from the indigent defense fund established pursuant to section 815.11.
  5.  The state public defender shall review all the claims submitted under subsection 3 or 4 and shall have the same authority with regard to the payment of these claims as the state public defender has with regard to claims submitted under chapters 13B and 815, including the authority to adopt rules concerning the review and payment of claims submitted.
2005 Acts, ch 107, §5, 14; 2006 Acts, ch 1071, §1, 2; 2009 Acts, ch 133, §249; 2013 Acts, ch 105, §2; 2014 Acts, ch 1038, §4

Section amended