Iowa Legal Overview The Iowa Supreme Court is the highest court in the state of Iowa. The Chief Justice is the constitutional head of the Iowa court system. The seven justices of the Supreme Court are appointed by the Governor and then have to get elected for an eight year term. The Iowa Court of Appeals is the appellate court comprised of nine judges. The District Court is the main trial court with general jurisdiction for cases divided into eight judicial districts. Both Appeals and District court judges are also appointed by the Governor and subsequently elected for a six-year term.
Top metro Iowa areas for Legal Issues: Des Moines-Newton-Pella Lawyer News
1. Iowa does not have the death penalty. The Iowa Supreme Court's first decision 26 years before the Civil War ended was In Re the Matter of Ralph, where the court declared a slave named Ralph to be free upon entering Iowa. In Clark v. Board of Directors (1868) and Coger v. North Western Union Packet Co. (1873), the court ordered desegregation of schools and accommodations respectively well ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1869, the court allowed Arabella Mansfield into the practice of law, thus becoming the first U.S. state to allow women to practice law. 2. The CEO of a brokerage firm based in Iowa confessed in a suicide note that he carried out an elaborate fraud scam in which he embezzled over $100 million from customers over nearly twenty years, according to federal investigators. 3. A federal privacy law mandates that the University of Iowa must withhold records from a 2007 assault.
Trending Iowa Legal Topics: The Iowa State Bar Association (ISBA) is a voluntary organization whose members include 90 percent of the 7,200 attorneys licensed to practice law in Iowa. Law school graduates seeking admission are reviewed by the Board of Law Examiners appointed by the Iowa Supreme Court. The Judicial Qualifications Commission is responsible for investigating misconduct by judges. |