Question: How many questions do clerks’ offices receive from the public every week?
Answer: Tons!
What began as a simple guide to assist clerks of court in answering common questions from the public slowly grew into a list of 317 frequently asked questions on the Iowa Judicial Branch website. The FAQ link on the homepage takes users to a list of 44 categories with answers to questions on subjects ranging from abuse cases to warrants. It includes brief (usually) and accurate answers to questions about the courts, court policies, and court procedures. The Iowa Supreme Court reviewed and approved the answers to the FAQs in August 2021.
These new FAQ pages will contribute significantly to public education about Iowa’s court system. In the long term, more Iowans should be able to find answers to their questions online and no longer need to call clerks or district court administration offices. The pages also will serve as a key resource for educating new judicial branch employees about our courts.
The new answers to FAQs constitute a significant update of the Guidelines for Clerks Who Assist Self-Represented Litigants, and the answers to 124 FAQs, which were included in one document produced by an Iowa judicial branch advisory committee in 2000. After the Iowa Supreme Court approved the Guidelines for Clerks and the answers to FAQs in 2000, the National Center for State Courts widely distributed Iowa’s Guidelines and answers to FAQs document as an example of how courts can improve assistance to self-represented litigants. Wisconsin’s courts eventually incorporated the Guidelines for Clerks into their court rules regarding the types of information clerks can and cannot provide to self-represented litigants. California’s Judicial Council and the Provincial Courts of Nova Scotia also asked Iowa’s state court administrator for permission to use Iowa’s Guidelines for Clerks. As recently as four years ago, a district court judge from Iowa attended a training program at the National Judicial College, including a session on how to manage cases involving self-represented litigants. The instructor for that class specifically identified Iowa’s year 2000 Guidelines for Clerks Who Assist Self-Represented Litigants and associated answers to FAQs as a model for other jurisdictions.
In 2020, the state court administrator appointed a statewide advisory committee to revise and update the 2000 Guidelines and answers to FAQs document. Since 2000, there had not been a thorough review and update of that document even though there had been a wide range of changes in the Iowa courts, including but not limited to: statewide implementation of EDMS and significant revisions to laws and policies on debt collection, domestic and elder abuse, and guardianships and conservatorships. The advisory committee worked diligently to update the Guidelines and to supplement and revise the FAQs and the answers to them.
Credit for these important new materials goes to the advisory committee co-chaired by District Court Judge Kevin McKeever (District 6) and District Associate Judge Cheryl Traum (District 7). The other committee members included:
Roxann Repstien, Clerk of District Court, District 6 (subcommittee chair)
Kim Hess, Clerk of District Court, District 7 (subcommittee chair)
Johnna Ihns-Sutton, Clerk of District Court, District 1
Amy Berntson, Clerk of District Court, District 3
Anne Sheeley, Clerk of District Court, District 5
Jackie Myers, Clerk of District Court, District 8
Christine Gordon, Clerk’s Office Supervisor, District 3
Jennifer Schumacher, Judicial Assistant, District 1
Bob Gast, District Court Administrator, District 4 (now State Court Administrator)
Gail Klearman, Managing Attorney, Iowa Legal Aid
Christine Mayberry, Deputy Clerk of the Supreme Court
Tim Eckley, Assistant Counsel to Chief Justice
Scott Ruhnke, SCA Liaison to the District Courts
John Goerdt, Deputy State Court Administrator
Hon. Daniel Tungesvik, Judicial Magistrate, District 2
Hon. John Heithoff, Judicial Magistrate, District 4
Marissa Gaal, the public information assistant in the Supreme Court’s communication office, also contributed by reformatting the FAQs and answers to make them easily accessible on the website.
Court and clerk office staff can find the new Guidelines for Court Staff Who Assist Unrepresented Persons in Iowa’s Courts, which is available on the judicial branch’s Sharepoint site at: Judicial Insider / Districts / Guide on Assisting Unrepresented Person. The new “FAQs” section is available on the Iowa courts’ home page by clicking on “FAQ” on the upper right side of the page.