Iowa Court Case Search — Find Your Lawsuit

Dena Standley | February 24, 2023

Legal Expert, Paralegal
Dena Standley, BA

Dena Standley is a seasoned paralegal with more than 20 years of experience in legal research and writing, having received a certification as a Legal Assistant/Paralegal from Southern Technical College.

Edited by Hannah Locklear

Editor at SoloSuit
Hannah Locklear, BA

Hannah Locklear is SoloSuit’s Marketing and Impact Manager. With an educational background in Linguistics, Spanish, and International Development from Brigham Young University, Hannah has also worked as a legal support specialist for several years.

Searching for your court case records in Iowa is like ^^

Summary: If you’re being sued in Iowa, you can look up your case status at the courthouse or online. Staying updated on your case status will increase your chances of winning. Use SoloSuit to respond to a debt lawsuit and fight off debt collectors.

Are you wondering if you can view your debt collection case records in Iowa? Well, the good news is that Iowa allows you to access your court records by visiting the courthouse where the creditors filed the case or online via the Iowa Court Online Search tool.

If you do not keep track of your case, you may miss a court date, the creditor may submit the wrong debt information, or you may fail to represent yourself well. SoloSuit is here to prevent that by giving you the information you need to navigate Iowa’s judicial system. Let's help you find your lawsuit. But first, let’s break down how the Iowa court system works.

Court Structure in Iowa

It is crucial to understand how the court system in Iowa works to help you know which court will handle your case and the options you have if you want to appeal. The Iowa courts comprise two level courts; the Trial Courts (District Courts) and the Appellate Courts (Court of Appeals and Supreme Court). Let's briefly discuss each court.

Supreme Court: Located in Des Moines, this court is the highest in the state. They listen to appeals from the lower courts. They do not preside over trials but only review the written case documents from the trial courts and make a judgment.
Court of Appeals: This court is an intermediate appellate court that reviews cases from the trial courts. Like the Supreme Court, they do not hear cases afresh but review the records from the lower courts. The decision made in this court is final unless the Supreme Court agrees to review it.
District Court: The majority of cases in Iowa begin in these courts. Every county has one District Court with general jurisdiction over civil, juvenile, criminal, and probate cases and small claims cases that involve claims of $6,500 or less.

Your debt collection case will be heard in a Small Claims Court division within the District Court if it does not exceed $6,500. Any amount higher than that is heard in the main District Court or a higher division court with jurisdiction over that amount.

The graphic below further outlines Iowa’s court structure:

ia court structure

This court allows you to represent yourself. Make sure you research how to represent yourself effectively. This video can help:

How to find your case number in Iowa

The court clerk assigns every case presented to their court a case number. This method helps keep records organized and promotes easy access. The clerks can use a combination of the following information to create the case number:

The year the case was filed
The county’s initials
The judge or judicial officer's initials
The case type

To find your case number, go to the Iowa Court Online Search portal and choose the name search option. Enter your details and click search. The case file will appear together with the case number.

You can also visit the courthouse with your details; the court official will help you find your case number. You may be charged for these services.

Let’s consider an example.

Example: Bobby is being sued by Chase for a credit card debt. He never receives the court documents, and he finds out he has lost the case by default. Bobby does some research and finds out that Chase is often guilty of sewer service, or failing to serve people with court documents and filing a false certification of service with the court. Bobby suspects this has happened to him, so he reaches out to SoloSuit and files a Motion to Dismiss Default Judgment along with an Answer where he uses improper service as one of his affirmative defenses. SoloSuit helps him file the documents, and the judgment against Bobby gets canceled, giving him another chance to fight back against the Chase credit card lawsuit.

How to access your Iowa court records

Court records are kept by the court that has jurisdiction over the case. Hence, you need to know in which courthouse your creditor filed the suit to access your documents. Typically, a debt collection case is filed in the county the debtor lives in. So, if you’re being sued for a debt, your case should be filed in the county where you live.

To access your Iowa court records, you can go to the courthouse in person or look them up online. Here’s how.

Access your Iowa court records in person

Visiting the court is an option Iowa gives its citizens to access their court records. Visit this page to find all Iowa court locations, addresses, and clerk information. Once there, look for your county, click on it, and you'll be redirected to another page with exhaustive contact information for your courthouse.

When you visit the courthouse, you’ll be required to submit a written request for the records you want, and the court clerk will search on your behalf. Some courthouses have public terminals for citizens to search the records. You may be required to pay a small fee for making copies and certification.

Access your Iowa court records remotely

The quickest way to find your court records is to search online. Iowa has a case tool that contains case records for all the counties. The options the portal gives you for searching trial court cases include:

Choose the option you have more information on to filter out relatively similar case information and leave you with a few to look through, or preferably produce your case records only.

An advanced search option is also available for cases in the appellate courts—you need to register an account to access these records.

SoloSuit is the partner you need in your case

Solosuit helps debtors stay on top of their debt collection cases by providing documents for every step of the collection process. Our Debt Validation Letter asks the creditor to validate the debt before a lawsuit; our Answer document helps you respond wisely to a lawsuit and increases your chances of a favorable outcome.

Our Motion to Compel Arbitration can force a lawsuit out of court using the arbitration clause, and our SoloSettle tool requests the creditors to settle the debt out of court by making an offer. Visit our page today and learn which document to use to fight off debt collectors and win.

What is SoloSuit?

SoloSuit makes it easy to fight debt collectors.

You can use SoloSuit to respond to a debt lawsuit, to send letters to collectors, and even to settle a debt.

SoloSuit's Answer service is a step-by-step web-app that asks you all the necessary questions to complete your Answer. Upon completion, we'll have an attorney review your document and we'll file it for you.

Respond with SoloSuit

"First time getting sued by a debt collector and I was searching all over YouTube and ran across SoloSuit, so I decided to buy their services with their attorney reviewed documentation which cost extra but it was well worth it! SoloSuit sent the documentation to the parties and to the court which saved me time from having to go to court and in a few weeks the case got dismissed!" – James

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>>Read the FastCompany article: Debt Lawsuits Are Complicated: This Website Makes Them Simpler To Navigate