CIVIL LAW, PROCEDURE AND COURT ADMINISTRATION

SENATE FILE 224 - Child in Need of Assistance Proceedings and Terminations of Parental Rights - Appeals
SENATE FILE 359 - Landlords and Tenants - Lease or Rental Agreement Terminations - Forcible Entry or Detention Actions
SENATE FILE 361 - Civil Commitment - Emergency Procedures
SENATE FILE 366 - Estates, Gifts, Trusts, and Related Property Transfers
HOUSE FILE 450 - Rule Against Perpetuities Exception - VETOED BY THE GOVERNOR
HOUSE FILE 584 - Recreational Activities in Designated Areas or on Public Property - Liability Limited
HOUSE FILE 694 - Judicial Administration and Procedures

RELATED LEGISLATION

SENATE FILE 97 - Transportation and Transportation-Related Regulation

SEE TRANSPORTATION. This Act allows the Iowa Department of Transportation and law enforcement agencies to disclose certain factual information contained in motor vehicle accident reports unless disclosure would jeopardize an investigation or endanger an individual.

SENATE FILE 155 - Substantive Code Corrections

SEE STATE GOVERNMENT. This Act contains statutory corrections that include changes relating to notices of appeal in condemnation cases, filing requirements for foreign agricultural landholders, military justice, mediator qualifications, court orders issued in adoption proceedings, documents filed and docketed by the clerk of court, and probate proceedings.

SENATE FILE 354 - Iowa Indian Child Welfare Act

SEE CHILDREN & YOUTH. This Act implements the federal Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 in Iowa law and includes requirements not specifically addressed by the federal law. In general, the "Iowa Indian Child Welfare Act" applies in any voluntary or involuntary child custody proceeding that will result in an Indian child's adoptive placement, foster care placement, preadoptive placement, or termination of parental rights. The juvenile court is subject to specific requirements.

SENATE FILE 379 - Agricultural Liens

SEE BUSINESS, BANKING & INSURANCE. This Act amends provisions relating to agricultural liens by providing that they must be perfected under Revised Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code (Code Chapter 554).

SENATE FILE 435 - Appropriations - Judicial Branch

SEE APPROPRIATIONS. This Act makes appropriations to the judicial branch and includes changes to the appointment of a clerk of the district court and to the state's contribution to the Judicial Retirement Fund.

SENATE FILE 453 - State and Local Government Financial and Regulatory Matters - Miscellaneous Provisions

SEE APPROPRIATIONS. This Act addresses state and local government financial and regulatory matters. Legislators referred to this legislation as the "Government Reinvention Bill" during debate and discussion. The Act includes provisions requiring the Department of Human Services to redesign the child welfare and juvenile justice services system.

SENATE FILE 458 - Miscellaneous Appropriations, Reductions, Revenue Adjustments, and Other Matters

SEE APPROPRIATIONS. Division V of this Act relates to compensation and benefits paid to state employees, including the judicial branch. Division VII creates a Tobacco Compliance Employee Training Fund consisting of civil penalties imposed for sales to underage purchasers with the moneys being used for training tobacco compliance employees.

HOUSE FILE 457 - Child Welfare Services - Assessment and Plan for Transition to Adulthood

SEE CHILDREN & YOUTH. This Act expands requirements for the transition of an individual from the child welfare services system to adulthood and, if needed, to the adult services system. Legislators suggested in debate on this legislation that it was crafted to address planning problems identified in the case of a young man named Reggie Kelsey who died after he left the child welfare system upon reaching adulthood.

HOUSE FILE 489 - Human Services Programs and Services - Miscellaneous Provisions

SEE HUMAN SERVICES. This Act relates to programs and services under the purview of the Department of Human Services (DHS) and includes provisions relating to future collection of debt due DHS from a Medical Assistance Program (Medicaid) recipient's estate.

HOUSE FILE 683 - Miscellaneous Appropriations and Revisions, Sales and Use Tax Revisions, Criminal Code Revisions, and Other Changes

SEE APPROPRIATIONS. This Act relates to economic development, financial, and taxation matters, revises previously enacted appropriations, and includes an increase in the salaries of judges, justices and magistrates and revises lien provisions for manufacturing housing.

HOUSE FILE 692 - Taxation, Economic Growth and Development, and Other Changes - Liability Reform, Workers' and Unemployment Compensation, and Financing Charges

SEE TAXATION. Division XV of the Act enacts liability reform relating to supersedeas (appeal) bonds.

CIVIL LAW, PROCEDURE AND COURT ADMINISTRATION

SENATE FILE 224 - Child in Need of Assistance Proceedings and Terminations of Parental Rights - Appeals (full text of bill)
BY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY. This Act provides that the Supreme Court may prescribe rules to expedite the time frame for appeals from final orders entered in child in need of assistance and termination of parental rights proceedings. The Act also provides that an application for further review to the Iowa Supreme Court in an appeal from a child in need of assistance or termination of parental rights proceeding must be filed within 10 days following the filing of the decision of the Iowa Court of Appeals.

SENATE FILE 359 - Landlords and Tenants - Lease or Rental Agreement Terminations - Forcible Entry or Detention Actions (full text of bill)
BY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY. This Act modifies residential landlord-tenant law as it relates to termination of rental agreements and eviction procedures.

The Act permits a state military service member to terminate a lease or rental agreement after being called to active military duty and provides a criminal penalty for interfering with the right to terminate.

The Act provides that a municipal housing agency is not required to provide a tenant any additional remedy when terminating a lease pursuant to federal law.

The Act exempts nonprofit transitional housing from Code Chapter 648, Forcible Entry or Detention of Real Property, unless such an occupant is subject to a lease or rental agreement. The Act modifies the procedures under Code Chapter 648 to delay executions of removal involving mobile or manufactured homes under specified conditions and to require the landlord to notify all lienholders of mobile or manufactured homes in writing prior to a hearing to remove the home from the park or community.

SENATE FILE 361 - Civil Commitment - Emergency Procedures (full text of bill)
BY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY. This Act relates to emergency procedures for the temporary detention and treatment of persons who are incapacitated or impaired due to substance abuse or mental health problems. The Act removes references to the chief medical officer and substitutes the examining physician as the person who is authorized to determine the treatment needs of a person who has been temporarily detained. The Act also eliminates the requirement that the judge or magistrate travel to the facility where the patient is being detained. The Act requires that the judge or magistrate follow up a detention order by filing with the clerk of court a written order before the close of the next business day.

SENATE FILE 366 - Estates, Gifts, Trusts, and Related Property Transfers (full text of bill)
BY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY. This Act provides a number of amendments to the Iowa Probate Code, including certain state inheritance and gift tax provisions.

INHERITANCE AND GIFT TAXES. Changes made in the area of inheritance and gift taxes include defining a stepchild as a child of a person who was married to the decedent at the time of the decedent's death or a child of a person who died while married to the decedent; exempting from tax intangible personal property owned by a decedent who was not domiciled in Iowa; providing that the net market value of property transferred for less than full consideration within three years of the decedent's death shall be determined as of the date of the transfer; specifying that the Iowa Department of Revenue and Finance must keep a separate record of any deferred estate where the tax is not paid on or before the last day of the ninth month after the death of the decedent; and repealing reciprocal transfer tax provisions under which nonresidents are exempt from certain taxes on personal property. The foregoing provisions of this Act apply to estates of decedents dying on or after July 1, 2003.

IOWA PROBATE CODE. Changes made in the area of probate include amending provisions of the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act to recognize other contracts in addition to wills, living trusts, deeds, or contracts of insurance that provide provisions for property distribution; amending the term "competency" with regard to irrevocable transfers to mean the ability to understand the effect a gift may have on the future financial security of the donor and anyone who may be dependent on the donor; providing that if a provision of a trust instrument makes any section of the trust code inapplicable to a trust, the common law shall apply; creating a new provision relating to the applicable governing law in regard to a trust not created by will; providing that a trust instrument must specify the particular duties a trustee must perform as an additional requirement which must be met in order for a trust to be considered valid in addition to other requirements for validity; amending certain statute of frauds provisions to specify that all trusts, except constructive and resulting trusts, must be in writing; providing that if the trustee merges with another institution or changes the location or place where the trust is administered, the court may remove a trustee or order other appropriate relief; providing certain rules with respect to the trustee's fiduciary duties; providing language related to a trustee's duty to provide information regarding an annual accounting to a qualified beneficiary; specifying certain rules of survivorship with respect to future interests under the terms of the trust and including a definition of "alternate beneficiary"; authorizing the trustee to transfer the trust's principal place of administration to another state or to a jurisdiction outside of the U.S.; and providing that "interested persons" may enter into a binding settlement agreement without court approval with respect to the interpretation or construction of the terms of the trust, the approval of a trustee's report or accounting, a direction to the trustee to refrain from performing a particular act or the grant to a trustee of any necessary or desirable power, the resignation or appointment of a trustee and the trustee's compensation, the transfer of a trust's principal place of administration, and the liability of a trustee for any trust action.

HOUSE FILE 450 - Rule Against Perpetuities Exception - VETOED BY THE GOVERNOR (full text of bill)
BY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY. This bill would have created an exception to the statutory rule against perpetuities codified in Code Section 558.68, which is a legal rule related to invalidating interests in property that are intended to belong to a person at some point in the future, but for which the actual determination of ownership cannot or will not be accomplished within a specified period of time. The purpose of the rule is to keep property from being frozen in trust beyond a certain period of years.

The bill would have allowed a creator of a trust to suspend, explicitly in the trust document, the rule from applying to a particular trust, but only if the trustee had the power to sell all trust assets or if one or more people, including the trustee, had the power to terminate the trust.

The bill would have allowed suspension of the rule in situations where an employer created a stock bonus plan, pension plan, disability or death benefit plan, or profit sharing plan, in trust, for the benefit of the employer's employees, for the purpose of distributing to the employees or their beneficiaries earnings or principal or both.

HOUSE FILE 584 - Recreational Activities in Designated Areas or on Public Property - Liability Limited (full text of bill)
BY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY. This Act provides for exceptions to liability for certain recreational activities. The Act limits the liability of prior owners of land on which an all-terrain vehicle recreational riding area is established, maintained or operated. The Act further provides exceptions to liability regarding a municipality's negligent design, construction or reconstruction of a public facility designed for the purpose of bicycling, unicycling, scootering, river rafting, canoeing, or kayaking, and to liability claims based upon acts or omissions of an officer or employee of the municipality involving a public facility designed for such purposes.

HOUSE FILE 694 - Judicial Administration and Procedures (full text of bill)
BY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS. This Act relates to procedures and duties of the judicial branch.

The Act permits the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to delay, by up to 180 days, the nomination process of a judge for appointment to the Iowa Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, district court, district associate court, magistrate court, juvenile court, and probate court. These changes to the nomination process are repealed on July 1, 2006.

The Act prohibits a member of a judicial nominating commission from nominating a family member, current law partner, or business partner for a judgeship.

The Act extends the retention time period from four to six years for a district associate judge, juvenile judge, and a probate judge.

The Act requires the county sheriff to serve a summons, notice or subpoena in a juvenile delinquency proceeding. The Act also requires the sheriff to serve a summons, subpoena, or other legal process in child in need of assistance proceedings under Code Section 232.88.

The Act eliminates the participation of the Foster Care Review Board in voluntary foster care placements and in reviewing delinquency cases involving foster care.

The Act requires that in a contempt action for violation of a no-contact domestic abuse order, the filing fees and court costs for the victim shall be waived by the court.

The Act makes substantial changes to the process related to petitioning for medical treatment by indigent persons. The Act provides that the county general assistance director and not the clerk of court shall file a complaint to appoint a physician to examine an indigent person. The Act principally substitutes the county general assistance director for the clerk of court in administering a complaint for indigent care and scheduling hearings and notifying parties. The Act also substitutes the board of supervisors for the court in reviewing the case and issuing findings.

The Act makes changes related to the criminal offense of driving a motor vehicle without liability insurance. The Act provides that an owner or driver charged with a violation of Code Section 321.20B may present proof of liability coverage prior to the court date to have the charge dismissed. Current law provides that the owner or driver present proof of coverage to the clerk of court within 30 days of the issuance of the citation to obtain a dismissal.

The Act provides that an owner of a vehicle who has been issued a ticket may have the ticket dismissed if the owner can furnish proof to the county attorney that a lessee or renter had custody of the vehicle when the alleged violation occurred and the ticket was issued. Current law provides that the owner of a vehicle show proof of coverage to the clerk of court and the clerk issue a new ticket if the owner was not in custody of the vehicle.

The Act makes changes related to modifying a dissolution decree in a county other than the county where the original decree was entered. The Act provides that upon entering a modification in another county, the clerk shall notify by regular mail, electronic transmission, or facsimile the clerk of court in the county where the original decree was entered.

The Act provides that a clerk of the district court appointment is subject to review by the State Court Administrator. The Act also provides that a clerk of the district court may be appointed to serve as clerk for up to four contiguous counties in the same judicial district. The Act eliminates the requirement that the clerk of the district court establish residence and physically reside in the county where the clerk is employed within three months of appointment. However, the Act retains the provision that a person does not qualify for appointment unless the person is at the time of application a resident of the state.

The Act eliminates the position of alternate district associate judge. Current law provides that if a county has only one district associate judge, an alternate district associate judge may be appointed to serve as a district associate judge on an as-needed basis.

The Act makes changes related to holding magistrate court in a city other than the county seat. The Act provides that magistrate court shall be scheduled in a city other than the county seat if magistrate court was held in the city on or after July 1, 2001, the population of the city is at least two times greater than the population of the county seat, or the population of the city is at least 30,000, and the city requests magistrate court be held in the city. The Act provides that the city requesting magistrate court shall pay the costs for holding magistrate court in the city which would not otherwise have been incurred by the judicial branch.

The Act establishes a judicial district and judicial election district redistricting process. The Act provides that the Supreme Court shall, beginning January 1, 2012, and at least every 10 years, review the division of the state into judicial districts and judicial election districts in order to determine whether the current composition of the judicial districts and judicial election districts is the most efficient and effective administration of the district courts and the judicial branch. Under the Act, if the Supreme Court determines that reorganizing the judicial districts and judicial election districts would bring about more efficiencies and be more effective for the administration of the district court and judicial branch, the Supreme Court shall develop and submit a reorganization plan to the General Assembly by November 15. The Act provides that the Legislative Service Bureau shall draft legislation embodying the reorganization plan for submission to the General Assembly. The General Assembly shall bring the legislation to a vote within 30 days of the legislation's submission by the Supreme Court under a procedure or rule permitting no amendments by either house except those that are of a purely corrective nature. The Act must pass both houses and be approved by the Governor to become law. The Supreme Court, prior to developing the reorganization plan, must consult and receive input from members of the general public, court employees, judges, members of the General Assembly, the judicial departments of correctional services, county officers, officials from other interested political subdivisions, and attorneys. The Act provides that the current composition of the judicial districts in Code Section 602.6107 and judicial election districts in Code Section 602.6109 shall remain in effect until the composition of the judicial districts and judicial election districts is enacted either using the procedure outlined in this Act or another process for considering a reorganization of the districts. The Act also creates a legislative study committee to study judicial district and judicial election district redistricting and the allocation of judicial branch resources.

The Act requires any party, other than the state or a political subdivision of the state, upon the party's first appearance in a court proceeding, to provide the clerk with the following information: an employer identification number if one has been assigned, a social security number, and the birth date of the party. The Act provides that in proceedings modifying child support, the clerk shall be provided with the child's date of birth and social security number. The Act requires that the clerk of court keep the party's social security number confidential.

The Act prohibits the judicial branch from establishing regional litigation centers.

The Act provides that if a vacancy in a judgeship occurs, and the Chief Justice makes a finding that a substantial disparity exists in the allocation of judgeships and judicial workload between judicial election districts, the Chief Justice may apportion the vacant judgeship to another judicial election district if a majority of the Judicial Council approves the apportionment. Under the Act, if the Chief Justice has determined that a substantial disparity exists, the Chief Justice may also authorize a voluntary permanent transfer of a district judge from one judicial election district to another, upon approval of a majority of the Judicial Council. A judge who voluntarily transfers shall establish residency in the new judicial election district within six months of the transfer and shall stand for retention in the new judicial election district. A district judge is not eligible for a voluntary transfer unless the judge has served a regular term of office. The provision of the Act providing for the voluntary transfer of judges is repealed on July 1, 2008.

The Act allows the clerk of court to enter in the appearance docket a memorandum of the date of filing of a new petition or order within two business days of the filing of the document. The Act also permits the clerk of court to complete the memorandum for all other pleadings as soon as practicable. The Act does not change the date in which the pleading is filed. However, a pleading may not be removed from the office of the clerk of court until the memorandum is completed.

The Act permits the clerk of court to enter a satisfaction of judgment if the amount of the unsatisfied judgment is less than $3. If a party is due a refund from the clerk's office, the clerk need not refund the money if the amount of money due is less than $3, unless the party requests a refund in writing. Current law provides that a satisfaction shall not be entered unless the dollar amount is less than $1, and money need not be refunded to a party if the amount is less than $1.

The Act makes changes to the filing fee assessed for certain parking violations. The Act increases the filing fees for most parking violations pursuant to Code Section 321.236, and for violations pursuant to Code Sections 321.239, 321.358, 321.360, and 321.361, from $1 to $8, effective January 1, 2004.

The Act decreases the court costs assessed in a scheduled violation case where a court appearance is required from $25 to $17. The Act decreases the filing fee for nonscheduled simple misdemeanors from $25 to $17. The Act increases the amount of court costs assessed in a scheduled violation case where a court appearance is not required from $15 to $17.

The Act eliminates the requirement that the clerk of court notify the parties of a default judgment entered in small claims court if the amount of the judgment is not readily ascertainable by the clerk. If the amount of the judgment is not readily ascertainable, it is assigned to a magistrate to make that determination.

The Act permits the clerk of court to charge a flat fee of $8 for postage in a small claims action rather than the actual cost of the postage.

The Act requires that the costs of serving any notice given by a fiduciary be paid directly by the estate rather than taxed as court costs.

The Act requires the clerk of court to deliver a certified copy of a will to an executor upon the filing of the original will with the clerk of court. Current law requires the will to be authenticated.

The Act eliminates the clerk of court's responsibility to prepare a court officer's deed for the purpose of transferring real property in an estate that has been opened with or without administration. The Act provides that the heir, the heir's attorney, or the personal representative shall be responsible for preparing the documents for change of title and delivering the documents to the county recorder.

The Act provides that interest on a judgment be calculated upon the One-Year Treasury Constant Maturity published by the Federal Reserve, plus 2 percent.

The Act permits the clerk of court to deliver by regular mail the court's final order from a reconsideration of sentence hearing. Current law requires the final order to be mailed by certified mail.

The Act requires the judge, rather than the State Court Administrator, to search the deferred judgment docket. The Act provides the deferred judgment docket shall be on a searchable database. The Act also permits the Department of Corrections to access deferred judgment records. Current law only permits the courts and the county attorney access to the records.

The Act repeals the requirement that probate court always be open for business.