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News Release
April 15, 2009
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Contact:
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Steve Davis, Court Communications Officer, (515)
725-8058
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Judicial Magistrates Apportionment
Des Moines, April 15, 2009—Today, the state court administrator's office issued
its four-year apportionment of judicial magistrates among Iowa's 99 counties.
The number of magistrate positions apportioned to each county was determined by
a formula that includes the number and types of cases heard by magistrates in
each county.
The new apportionment
redistributes 16 judicial magistrate positions. Sixteen counties—Appanoose,
Carroll, Cherokee, Clarke, Crawford, Delaware, Floyd, Hardin, Iowa, Jones,
Mills, Montgomery, Page, Sac, Tama, and Winneshiek—lose one of their current
two judicial magistrate positions. Ten counties—Black Hawk, Clayton, Clinton,
Dubuque, Johnson, Linn, Muscatine, Polk, Pottawattamie, and Scott—gain
additional judicial magistrate positions.
Nine of the 10 counties allocated additional magistrates will still have
a shortage, according to the formula.
The terms of all judicial
magistrates end July 31, 2009. County magistrate appointing commissions will
begin work in the near future to fill their allotment of judicial magistrate
positions.
Currently, the state has 206
authorized judicial magistrate positions. Under Iowa law each county is
entitled to at least one judicial magistrate position. To determine which counties would receive
two or more magistrate positions, the state court administrator used a weighted
caseload formula developed by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) based
on its study of the workload of Iowa judges and magistrates in 2008. More than 90 percent of all magistrates
participated in that workload study.
Based on the weighted
caseload formula, and applying the requirement that each county receive at
least one magistrate position, the Iowa courts need 229 judicial magistrate
positions statewide to fully meet caseload demands, but there are only 206
positions to allocate. Consequently,
even with the redistribution of 16 judicial magistrates, 15 counties (14 of
them are among the 20 most populous counties in the state) will receive fewer
judicial magistrate positions than the formula indicates they need.
Iowa judicial magistrates
have authority to handle small claims (up to $5,000), simple misdemeanors
(traffic and ordinance violations), initial appearances in all criminal cases,
seized property cases, and adult mental health and substance abuse commitment
cases. Every county has at least one
resident magistrate who, under the Code of Iowa, may be a lawyer or a lay
person, though preference is given to lawyers who apply for magistrate
positions. Judicial magistrates are appointed by county magistrate appointing
commissions and serve four-year terms. The position is part time.
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2009
Iowa Supreme Court
1111 East Court Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50319
515-281-3952
