HF 2719 (LSB 6772HV (2) 91)

HOUSE FILE 2719

BY  COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY

(SUCCESSOR TO HSB 631)

(As Amended and Passed by the House 2026-03-04)

A BILL FOR

An Act  relating to the collection and publication of judicial officer performance information.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  NEW SECTION.  46.26  Judicial officer performance information.
   1.  The state commissioner of elections shall collect and publish objective, data-driven information, expressed as unadjusted numbers and adjusted percentile ranks, related to each district court judge including district associate judges, full-time associate juvenile judges, and full-time associate probate judges.
   a.  The information must include all of the following:
   (1)  The percentage of cases in which the judge set a bond amount lower than the bond schedule promulgated pursuant to section 804.21, subsection 5, categorized by offense class.
   (2)  The frequency with which a person is released on the person’s own recognizance by the judge when the person is arrested for a violent offense compared to a nonviolent offense, categorized by offense class.
   (3)  The frequency with which the judge’s final sentence is lower than the statutory recommendation or the prosecutor’s recommendation, categorized by offense class.
   (4)  The number of times the judge grants a deferred judgment, deferred sentence, or suspended sentence.
   (5)  The number of times the judge’s rulings are reversed by the court of appeals or the supreme court due to abuse of discretion or error of law, including the percentage of the total number of the judge’s opinions or orders appealed in the same time period, with the total number of appeals displayed as the denominator, categorized by issue type.
   (6)  The average time from the filing of a motion or submission of a case for ruling to the judge’s final ruling on the motion or case.
   (7)  The number of cases the judge has disposed of compared to the number of outstanding cases remain on the judge’s docket each year.
   b.  Beginning five years after the effective date of this Act, each metric must include a five-year rolling trend line.
   c.  The information collected under this subsection must be available for public download in an electronic, machine-readable open format. All data and adjusted metrics must be equally prominent and equally accessible.
   2.  a.  The judicial branch shall provide the state commissioner of elections with read-only access to all publicly available information on the Iowa court information system within one year of the effective date of this Act.
   b.  The state court administrator shall annually certify the accuracy and completeness of the information made available under paragraph “a” during the period beginning November 1 and ending December 31.
   c.  The state court administrator shall report any material discrepancies in the information to the general assembly.
   3.  Within eighteen months of the effective date of this Act, the state commissioner of elections shall submit a methodology report to the general assembly that contains all of the following:
   a.  A case complexity index assigning weighted scores to each case type based on objective criteria including statutory penalty range, number of parties, number of hearings, length of the trial or contested hearing, and whether the case involved a constitutional challenge or question of first impression.
   b.  The method for assigning judges to peer groups of comparable docket composition.
   c.  The mathematical formula for each adjusted metric including expression of the adjusted metric as a percentile rank within the judge’s peer group and judicial district.
   d.  The minimum case volume threshold for statistical confidence under subsection 4.
   e.  The criteria for distinguishing required opinions and orders under subsection 5, paragraph “a”.
   4.  Any metric based on fewer cases than the ninety percent statistical confidence at one standard deviation must display, in boldface type, the following phrase immediately adjacent to the metric:
   RELIABILITY WARNING: This figure is based on a small number of cases and may not accurately reflect this judge’s typical performance.
   5.  a.  The state commissioner of elections shall maintain an online searchable public repository of all written opinions and orders that disclose a judge’s reasoning, legal analysis, factual findings, or conclusions of law for each judge’s current term and the six preceding years to the extent available. In cases of ambiguity, the state commissioner of elections shall err on the side of inclusion.
   b.  Beginning one year after the effective date of this Act, the state court administrator shall provide the opinions and orders required under paragraph “a” electronically each month to the state commissioner of elections.
   c.  The state commissioner of elections shall publish the opinions and orders as searchable documents with redactions consistent with Iowa court rules. The redacted documents must note the category of information redacted. Documents subject to a protective order, that are sealed, or that are otherwise confidential under law shall not be posted. The state commissioner of elections shall provide a notice in place of the document identifying the date the document was issued, the general subject matter to the extent disclosable, and the reason for nonproduction.
   d.  The online searchable public repository shall support full-text search by keyword, date range, case type, and party type.
   6.  The state commissioner of elections shall maintain an internet site that includes all of the following:
   a.  A search by judicial district, county, and judge name.
   b.  (1)  A profile page for each judge displaying the unadjusted numbers and adjusted metrics required under subsection 1, with peer group and judicial district comparisons, and trend lines where applicable, and a link to the online searchable public repository under subsection 5.
   (2)  The state commissioner of elections shall not add narrative interpretation or editorial commentary to any judge’s profile page beyond what this section expressly authorizes and shall not filter or selectively present information in the online searchable public repository.
   c.  (1)  A space for each judge’s personal statement on judicial philosophy or data trends, not to exceed two thousand words.
   (2)  The state commissioner of elections shall not edit the judge’s personal statement except to enforce the word limit or remove verifiably false content after providing notice and an opportunity to revise the personal statement to the judge.
   d.  The methodology report under subsection 3.
   e.  An annual report, to also be submitted to the general assembly, on data collected, documents posted, anomalies, deviations from methodology, and disclaimer acknowledgment statistics.
   7.  a.  The state commissioner of elections shall create a standalone internet page for a person to acknowledge the notice under paragraph “b” prior to accessing a judge’s profile page.
   b.  The standalone internet page shall require a person to check a box to acknowledge the following statement:
IMPORTANT NOTICE —— PLEASE READ BEFORE PROCEEDING
   This information is published by the Iowa secretary of state to assist voters in judicial retention elections. Statistics reflect caseload composition as much as judicial performance and do not measure whether a judge reached the correct result. Reversal rates cover only appealed cases. Sentencing and bond departures may be legally appropriate exercises of judicial discretion. Written opinions reflect judicial reasoning but not the full underlying record. Metrics flagged with a reliability warning should be given little or no weight. In reviewing this information, the reader will please remember that every lawsuit is different, with different parties, different facts, and different applicable legal principles. Accordingly, any attempt, such as the information presented on the following page, to reduce such complexity to mere statistics is inherently imperfect.
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   8.  This section does not authorize the state commissioner of elections to supervise, direct, or regulate any judge.
   9.  a.  The state commissioner of elections may adopt rules pursuant to chapter 17A to administer this section. A rule adopted by the state commissioner of elections pursuant to chapter 17A for purposes of this section shall not become effective until it is ratified by the general assembly by passage of a joint resolution subject to approval of the governor.
   b.  If the state commissioner of elections determines that such a rule must become effective while the general assembly is not in session, the state commissioner of elections may request temporary approval of the rule by the legislative council. The rule shall become effective upon temporary approval by the legislative council. A rule temporarily approved by the legislative council shall cease to be effective upon the adjournment of the next regular session of the general assembly following the effective date of the rule unless the general assembly ratifies the rule before adjournment.
   c.  The administrative code editor shall publish a notice in the Iowa administrative bulletin if such a rule is ratified, temporarily approved, or ceases to be effective. If such a rule ceases to be effective, the administrative code editor shall remove the rule from the Iowa administrative code as soon as practicable, but no sooner than two weeks after such publication.