Statement on Task Force for Civil Justice Reform Survey          

March 16, 2011                                                 

In December 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court established the Task Force for Civil Justice Reform to conduct a study of Iowa’s civil justice system and to develop proposals for new court processes that will foster prompt, affordable and high-quality resolution of non-domestic civil cases. As part of this study the Task Force conducted a survey of Iowa lawyers and judges. The Task Force released the survey results today.

The Task Force designed the survey instrument in consultation with the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, Denver, Colorado. The purpose of the survey was to obtain opinions from lawyers and judges with civil litigation experience in Iowa courts about current court procedures used for non-domestic civil cases, as well as to gain feedback on a variety of ideas that might make the civil justice system more prompt, affordable, and easier to use. Prior to creating the Task Force for Civil Justice Reform, the supreme court considered whether to have the Task Force include family law procedures in its study. The court decided that family law procedures warrant a separate, specialized study. For this reason, family law procedures are not within the scope of the Task Force study or this survey. The survey is one of several steps undertaken or planned by the Task Force to gather information about Iowa’s civil justice system. The Task Force subcommittees will use the survey results and other information they collect to inform their on-going evaluations of particular civil procedures, practices, and programs, and their eventual recommendations for improvements to Iowa’s civil justice system. 

The survey questions and collected responses do not reflect the views or positions of the Iowa Judicial Branch. 

An email invitation to participate in the study was sent to 9,508 attorneys and judges licensed in Iowa, for whom valid email addresses were available, regardless of legal experience or specialty. The survey explicitly informed potential participants that this was a study of non-domestic civil litigation in Iowa state courts. In total, 1,183 individuals answered at least a portion of the survey. While the size of the study population – those with non-domestic civil litigation experience in Iowa – is unknown, it is smaller than the total number to whom the survey was sent. Nevertheless, assuming that all individuals who received the invitation to participate have civil litigation experience in Iowa (and it is clear that they do not), a very conservative estimate of the response rate is 12% (1,183/9,508). Using the same conservative figures, at a 95% confidence level, the overall margin of error is +/ – 2.67% (because respondents were not required to answer every portion of the survey, this number will vary by question). Of those who responded, more than half identified themselves as private practitioners. In addition, the percentage of respondents who represent plaintiffs, defendants, or both was almost evenly balanced. 

Task Force for Civil Justice Reform Survey

Notice: The 2011 Task Force for Civil Justice Reform Survey was conducted via the online Survey Monkey service. The results comprise 45 summary pages of responses to survey questions, followed by 339 pages listing each response to the survey's open-ended questions and those questions for which "Other" was an answer option.