What would happen if 30 Iowa counties lost court services?

Deep cuts to Iowa's judicial branch proposed by the state Senate could drastically change the way Iowans access legal services, advocates warn.

Lawyers say eliminating court services at 30 of Iowa's 100 courthouses would result in delays and crowded courtrooms, affecting victims of crimes as well as those facing criminal charges.

State Court Administrator Todd Nuccio warned that consolidation would be necessary after the Iowa Senate Appropriations Committee voted to approve $52 million in mid-year cuts to the state's budget. About $4.8 million of that cut would fall on the judicial branch.

If that happens "we are left with no other choice than to close courthouses and eliminate personnel branch-wide," Nuccio wrote. "As such, we are projecting the elimination of court services at over 30 county courthouses proportionately distributed across our eight judicial districts."

'No decisions have been made'

Republicans say concerns about eliminating services are overblown.

They point out that from fiscal years 2011 to 2017, the judicial branch saw an overall budget increase of $28.5 million, or 18.9 percent, although it did receive a $3 million mid-year cut in 2017.

"I doubt that they’re going to need to close 30 courthouses. I sure hope not, because that would seem like (they’re) not trying very hard. But we’ll see what the number is," said House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, R-Clear Lake.

The cuts would not mean shuttering the courthouse buildings themselves, which are paid for by counties. Rather, eliminating court operations in 30 counties would force Iowans to travel further for things like child custody hearings, filing for divorce, fighting an eviction or contesting a speeding ticket.

The Iowa House has not released its own budget cut proposal and the Senate's proposed cuts are far deeper than those outlined by Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has called for a $1.6 million mid-year cut to the judicial branch. Those recommendations will ultimately have to be reconciled.

Steve Davis, a judicial branch spokesperson, said the number of affected counties was reached by looking at the average clerk's salary, estimating at how many positions would need to be eliminated, and looking at the distribution of clerks and case volume in Iowa's counties to determine how many offices would have to be closed.

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Several emails written by Nuccio, which were provided to the Register by the judicial branch, show no decisions have been made about which courthouses would be consolidated.

"We haven't even discussed it," Nuccio wrote.

'Justice delayed is justice denied'

Many of Iowa's courthouses are not large enough to handle their own growing caseloads, lawyers say, much less take on new cases from neighboring counties.

They say cutting court staff and moving more cases to buildings that in some areas are already overcrowded will result in delays.

"We will see judges and court staff who could be potentially overworked and trying to balance" more cases from neighboring counties, said Abhay Nadipuram, secretary for the Iowa State Bar Association's young lawyers division and an attorney at the Davis Brown law firm in Des Moines.

Conrad Meis, an Algona lawyer and president of the Iowa Association for Justice, said he fears further cuts to the judicial branch will affect Iowans' constitutional right to a speedy trial and access to the justice system.

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"They say 'justice delayed is justice denied,'" he said.

For almost a year — July 2016 through June 2017 — Warren County prosecutors, defense attorneys, defendants, victims and law enforcement were forced to shuttle between Marion and Madison counties after the Warren County Courthouse was closed due to concerns about mold, plumbing issues and other problems.

Now, court business is conducted in a temporary space that Warren County Attorney Douglas Eicholtz called "a three- or four-year fix."

"We’re obviously bigger than our neighbors on the east and west and the south. If they would try to put them into our facility right now, it would be a disaster, and we couldn’t do it," he said.

Delays could affect businesses, too, by creating uncertainty about when lawsuits and other disputes might be resolved.

In his annual condition of the judiciary address, Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has ranked Iowa highly in the past for its business environment, but in 2017, the state fell from fourth to 13th in the nation.

Iowa won't continue to enjoy its reputation as being good for business "when we have to tell businesses that, no, your case is not going to be heard for another year because we don't have a judge to try the case," said Steve Eckley, president of the Iowa State Bar Association and an attorney at Belin McCormick in Des Moines.

"It gives us a black eye, nationally, in terms of the legal environment we offer to businesses that might be thinking of expanding here," he said.

Costs fall on clients, counties, rural Iowa

Advocates for the judicial branch fear consolidation will fall hardest on rural Iowa, where longer travel times could discourage lawyers from taking certain cases, or wind up costing Iowans more in hourly lawyer rates.

And lower-income Iowans who may already have difficulty finding reliable transportation or getting time off work will be affected as they're forced to travel farther, Meis said.

"People who need to challenge an unfair speeding ticket or a minor municipal infraction will find it more expensive and difficult to get away from work when they need to travel to another county," he said.

Meis likened access to the justice system to safe highways: It's something all Iowans expect to have, no matter where they live in the state. People who live in rural Iowa know they won't have certain big city amenities, but they do expect a certain level of governmental services, he said.

"The constitution doesn’t guarantee the amenities of urban Iowa to all Iowans, but it does guarantee access to justice," Meis said.

Rep. Chris Hall, D-Sioux City, the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, said over time the cuts will harm rural towns that have long built businesses up around county courthouses.

"These cuts are going to have a real impact on rural Iowa and rural communities," Hall said.

Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Bondurant, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said the judicial branch has received funding increases several times in recent years, while Republicans controlled the Iowa House.

"I push back hard on the idea that the judicial branch has been systemically underfunded," he said.

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The costs of court consolidation could spill over to counties as well. When Warren County's courthouse closed, Eicholtz said he had to hold open vacant positions to keep his office out of the hole after spending additional money on transportation and extra attorney time.

The Warren County Attorney's Office spent $14,000 on mileage during that year, up from about $4,000 the year before. And costs would have been even more if Eicholtz's office hadn't borrowed a sheriff's vehicle so attorneys could carpool.

The sheriff's office spent more money transporting inmates to a neighboring county for court hearings, Eicholtz said, including about $50,000 on a van large enough to transport several inmates at once.

"They didn’t have anything big enough in their fleet to transport that number of people," he said.

Court system needs modernizing

Iowa's current system of 100 county courthouses dates to the 19th century, when getting to the courthouse meant traveling on horseback or by buggy. The idea of courthouse consolidation has been discussed off and on for years.

"You don’t need to jump on a horse to file a document electronically, you can do it at your desk with the click of a mouse," said state Sen. Charles Schneider, R-West Des Moines, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Many lawyers are open to talks about consolidating courthouses, Eckley said, but cuts are the wrong way to force the issue.

"The argument is we don’t need courthouses in every county because some of them don’t have as much work as others," he said. "That’s an issue that needs to be debated by the Legislature. It doesn’t need to be forced on these rural communities without a debate by cutting the funding for the judicial branch."

— Reporter Brianne Pfannenstiel contributed to this story.

Iowa's courthouses:

100: The number of courthouses in Iowa's 99 counties. Lee County, in the southeast corner of the state, has two courthouses: The North Lee County Courthouse is in Fort Madison and the South Lee County Courthouse is in Keokuk.

38: Iowa courthouses built before 1900.

6: Iowa courthouses built since 1970.

1842: The year Iowa's oldest courthouse still in use — the North Lee County Courthouse — opened.

2015: The year Iowa's most recent courthouse — Mitchell County Courthouse in Osage — opened.