§ 602.8107 — Collection of court debt

Iowa § 602.8107

• Jurisdiction: Iowa
• Title XV: JUDICIAL BRANCH AND JUDICIAL PROCEDURES
• Ch. 602: JUDICIAL BRANCH

Text

1. Definitions. As used in this section unless the context otherwise requires:
a. “Court debt” means all restitution as defined in section 910.1, fees, forfeited bail, and
other debt paid to or collected by the clerk of the district court.
b. (1) “Installment agreement” means an agreement made for the payment of court debt
in excess of one hundred dollars in installments.
(2) The judicial branch may establish a threshold amount that is lower than the threshold
amount specified in subparagraph (1) by court rule.
c. “Installment payment” means the partial payment of court debt which is divided into
portions that are made payable at different times.
2. Clerk of the district court collection. Court debt shall be owed and payable to the clerk
of the district court. All amounts collected shall be distributed pursuant to sections 602.8106
and 602.8108 or as otherwise provided by this Code. The clerk may accept payment of an
obligation or a portion thereof by credit card. Any fees charged to the clerk with respect to
payment by credit card may be paid from receipts collected by credit card.
a. If the clerk receives payment from a person who is an inmate at a correctional
institution or who is under the supervision of a judicial district department of correctional
services, the payment shall be applied to the balance owed under the identified case number
of the case which has resulted in the placement of the person at a correctional institution or
under the supervision of the judicial district department of correctional services.
b. (1) Except as provided in subparagraph (2), if a case number is not identified, the clerk
shall apply the payment to the balance owed in the criminal case with the oldest judgment
against the person.
(2) The clerk shall apply payments to pecuniary damages in other criminal cases when
no case number is identified in priority order from the oldest judgment to the most recent
judgment before applying payments to any other court debt.
c. Payments received under this section shall be applied in the following priority order:
(1) Pecuniary damages as defined in section 910.1, subsection 6.
(2) Fines or penalties and the crime services surcharge.
(3) Crime victim compensation program reimbursement.
(4) Court costs, court-appointed attorney fees, or public defender expenses.
d. The court debt is deemed delinquent if it is not paid within thirty days after the date
it is assessed. An amount which was ordered by the court to be paid on a date fixed in the
future pursuant to section 909.3 is deemed delinquent if it is not received by the clerk within
thirty days after the fixed future date set out in the court order. If an amount was ordered to
be paid by installments, and an installment is not received within thirty days after the date it
is due, the entire amount of the court debt is deemed delinquent.
3. Collection by department of revenue.
a. Thirty days after court debt has been assessed and full payment has not been received,
or if an installment payment is not received within thirty days after the date it is due, the
judicial branch shall assign a case to the department of revenue, unless the case has been
assigned to the county attorney under paragraph “d”.
b. The department of revenue shall receive fifteen percent of each court debt payment
collected on cases assigned to the department of revenue for collection to reflect the cost of
processing and the remaining eighty-five percent of such court debt collected shall be paid
to the clerk of the district court for distribution under section 602.8108. The department
of revenue collection fee shall not include the amount of court debt collected for restitution
involving pecuniary damages, the victim compensation fund, the crime services surcharge,
the domestic and sexual abuse crimes surcharge, the agricultural theft surcharge, the sex
offender civil penalty, or interpreter or translator fees.
c. The centralized debt collection facilities of the department of revenue established

pursuant to section 421.17, subsection 27, shall collect court debt assigned to the department
of revenue pursuant to this section.
d. Thirty days after court debt has been assessed and full payment has not been received,
or if an installment payment is not received within thirty days after the date it is due, and if
a county attorney has filed with the clerk of the district court a notice of full commitment to
collectdelinquentcourtdebtpursuanttosubsection4,thecaseshallbeassignedtothecounty
attorney as provided in subsection 4. The judicial branch shall assign cases with delinquent
court debt to a county attorney in the same format and with the same frequency as cases with
delinquent court debt are assigned to the department of revenue under paragraph “a”, and a
county attorney shall not be required to file an individual notice of full commitment to collect
delinquent court debt for each assigned case. If the county attorney or the county attorney’s
designee, while collecting delinquent court debt pursuant to subsection 4, determines that
a person owes additional court debt for which a case has not been assigned by the judicial
branch, the county attorney or the county attorney’s designee shall notify the clerk of the
district court of the appropriate case numbers and the judicial branch shall assign these cases
to the county attorney for collection if the additional court debt is delinquent.
4. County attorney collection. The county attorney or the county attorney’s designee
may collect court debt after the court debt is deemed delinquent pursuant to subsection 2. In
order to receive a percentage of the amounts collected pursuant to this subsection, the county
attorney must first file with the clerk of the district court on or before July 1 of the first year
the county attorney collects court debt under this subsection, a notice of full commitment
to collect delinquent court debt, and a memorandum of understanding with the state court
administrator for all cases assigned to the county for collection by the court. The notice
shall contain a list of procedures which will be initiated by the county attorney. For a county
attorney filing a notice of full commitment for the first time, the cases involving delinquent
court debt previously assigned to the department of revenue shall remain assigned to the
departmentofrevenue. Casesinvolvingdelinquentcourtdebtassignedtothecountyattorney
after the filing of a notice of full commitment by the county attorney shall remain assigned to
the county attorney. A county attorney who chooses to discontinue collection of delinquent
courtdebtshallfilewiththeclerkofthedistrictcourtonorbeforeMay15anoticeoftheintent
to cease collection of delinquent court debt at the start of the next fiscal year. If a county
attorney ceases collection efforts, or if the state court administrator deems that a county
attorney collections program has become ineligible to collect as specified in paragraph “f”,
all cases involving delinquent court debt assigned to the county attorney shall be transferred
on July 1 to the department of revenue for collection, except that debt associated with any
existing installment agreement shall remain assigned to the county for collection unless an
installment payment becomes delinquent, after which the delinquent debt associated with
the installment agreement shall be transferred promptly to the department of revenue for
collection.
a. This subsection does not apply to amounts collected for restitution involving pecuniary
damages, the victim compensation fund, the crime services surcharge, the domestic and
sexual abuse crimes surcharge, the agricultural theft surcharge, the sex offender civil
penalty, interpreter or translator fees, or under section 421.65.
b. Amounts collected by the county attorney or the county attorney’s designee shall be
distributed in accordance with paragraphs “c” and “d”.
c. (1) Twenty-eight percent of the amounts collected by the county attorney or the person
procured or designated by the county attorney shall be deposited in the general fund of the
countyifthecountyattorneyhasfiledthenoticerequiredbythissubsection,unlessthecounty
attorney has discontinued collection efforts on a particular delinquent amount.
(2) The remaining seventy-two percent shall be paid to the clerk of the district court
each fiscal year for distribution under section 602.8108. However, if such amount, when
added to the amount deposited into the general fund of the county pursuant to subparagraph
(1), exceeds the following applicable threshold amount, the excess shall be distributed as
provided in paragraph “d”:
(a) For a county with a population greater than one hundred fifty thousand, an amount
up to one million dollars.

(b) For a county with a population greater than one hundred thousand but not more than
one hundred fifty thousand, an amount up to six hundred thousand dollars.
(c) For a county with a population greater than fifty thousand but not more than one
hundred thousand, an amount up to three hundred thousand dollars.
(d) For a county with a population greater than twenty-six thousand but not more than
fifty thousand, an amount up to one hundred thousand dollars.
(e) For a county with a population greater than fifteen thousand but not more than
twenty-six thousand, an amount up to fifty thousand dollars.
(f) For a county with a population equal to or less than fifteen thousand, an amount up to
twenty-five thousand dollars.
d. After the total collected by a county attorney exceeds the threshold amount set in
paragraph “c”, and for the remainder of the fiscal year, five percent of the additional moneys
collected shall be deposited with the office of the county attorney that collected the moneys;
twenty-eight percent of the additional moneys collected shall be deposited in the general
fund of the county where the moneys were collected; and the remaining sixty-seven percent
of the additional moneys shall be paid to the clerk of the district court for distribution under
section 602.8108 or the state court administrator may distribute the remainder under section
602.8108iftheadditionalmoneyshavealreadybeenreceivedbythestatecourtadministrator.
e. (1) A county may enter into an agreement pursuant to chapter 28E with one or more
other counties for the purpose of collecting delinquent court debt pursuant to this subsection.
(2) When a county enters into a chapter 28E agreement with another county or counties
to collect delinquent court debt, the county or the county debt collection designee must
collect an amount of delinquent court debt that originated in the county and that is equal to
the applicable threshold amount under paragraph “c” in order for the county to qualify for
distribution of moneys collected by county attorneys under paragraph “d”.
f. Beginning July 1, 2017, within two years of beginning to collect delinquent court
debt, a county attorney shall be required to collect one hundred percent of the applicable
threshold amount specified in paragraph “c”. If a county attorney collects more than eighty
percent but less than one hundred percent of the applicable threshold amount, the state
court administrator shall provide notice to the county attorney specifying that in order to
remain eligible to participate in the county attorney collection program, the county attorney
must collect at least one hundred twenty-five percent of the applicable threshold amount
by the end of the next fiscal year. If a county attorney who has been given such a notice
fails to collect one hundred twenty-five percent of the applicable threshold amount, the state
court administrator shall provide notice to the county attorney that the county is ineligible
to participate in the county attorney collection program for the next two fiscal years and
all existing and future court cases with delinquent court debt shall be assigned to the
department of revenue. The provisions of this paragraph apply to all counties, including
those counties where delinquent court debt is collected pursuant to a chapter 28E agreement
with one or more counties.
5. Uncollectible debt.
a. Court debt that has been assigned to the department of revenue for collection pursuant
to subsection 3 may be charged off from active collection by the director of the department
of revenue if either of the following conditions exist:
(1) The person owing the court debt is deceased and there are no assets in the person’s
estate or there are no assets available for the payment of court debt under section 633.425.
(2) The person owing the court debt cannot be located after diligent inquiry and the
director of the department of revenue determines the department will not be able to locate
the person.
b. Court debt for any of the following shall not be charged off until sixty-five years from
the date of imposition:
(1) Pecuniary damages.
(2) Victim compensation.
(3) A criminal penalty surcharge.
(4) A sex offender civil penalty.
(5) A drug abuse resistance education surcharge.

(6) A law enforcement initiative surcharge.
(7) A county enforcement surcharge.
(8) Fees charged pursuant to section 356.7.
(9) A crime services surcharge.
(10) A domestic and sexual abuse crimes surcharge.
(11) An agricultural theft surcharge.
c. Debt that is charged off shall remain due and owing, but the judicial branch shall close
the corresponding case file for the purposes of collection pursuant to this section.
6. Reports. The judicial branch shall prepare a report aging the court debt. In addition,
the report shall include the amounts written off pursuant to subsection 5. The judicial
branch shall provide the report to the co-chairpersons and ranking members of the joint
appropriations subcommittee on the justice system, the legislative services agency, and the
department of management by December 15 of each year.