Requiring vehicle identification information to be provided in a no-contact or protective order, and making penalties applicable

Description

House File 2346 requires a defendant or respondent to provide vehicle identification information to the clerk of court within 10 days after receiving service of a protective order or no-contact order and to provide any updated identification information within five days of a change occurring. A defendant must provide identification information regarding any vehicles owned or operated, including those operated in the regular course of employment or those registered to another member in the defendant’s household. A defendant or respondent who fails to timely file the identification information or who fails to timely notify the clerk of court of any updated identification information should be held in contempt of court and punished pursuant to Iowa Code chapter 665.

Background

Under Iowa Code section 664A.2, a protective order issued in a civil proceeding must be issued pursuant to Iowa Code chapter 232 (juvenile justice), chapter 235F (elder abuse), chapter 236 (domestic abuse), chapter 236A (sexual abuse), chapter 598 (dissolution of marriage and domestic relations), or chapter 915 (victim rights).

Under Iowa Code section 664A, when a person is taken into custody pursuant to Iowa Code section 236.11 or Iowa Code section 236A.12, or arrested for domestic abuse assault, harassment, stalking, sexual abuse in the first degree, sexual abuse in the second degree, sexual abuse in the third degree, or any other public offense for which there is a victim, and the person is brought before a magistrate for initial appearance, the magistrate should enter a no-contact order if certain stipulations are met.

Under Iowa Code chapter 665, contempt of court is punishable as follows:

• Before district judges, district associate judges, and associate juvenile judges, by a fine not exceeding $500 and up to six months in a county jail.
• Before judicial magistrates, by a fine not exceeding $100 or up to 30 days in a county jail.

Assumptions

• If a protective or no-contact order is issued and the vehicle identification information is provided after the issuance of the order, a modified order would need to be issued so that the information received could be included in the orders as required by the Bill.
• Nearly all criminal no-contact orders and most types of protective orders would be issued and then need to be modified and reissued.
• Approximately 22,000 no-contact orders and protective orders are issued each year.
• The process of receiving vehicle information, adding it to an order, and then reissuing an order would take approximately 10 minutes per order. This would equal 222,000 minutes per year, or 3,667 hours.
• The work of adding vehicle information to an order and reviewing and issuing a modified order would be the shared responsibility of a judge and judicial specialist at 1,834 hours each.
• The average hourly cost of a district judge and district associate judge is $106, and the average hourly cost for a judicial specialist is $35.
• The Judicial Branch reports that vehicle identification information would need to be included with other protective order information in the Iowa Online Warrants and Articles (IOWA) Criminal Justice Information Network protection order file and replicated in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) protection order file.
• The Judicial Branch would need to add a new screen or modify a current screen within the case management system and potentially add new role codes to capture all potential vehicle information, and work with outside entities to create or modify a Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) exchange.
• The Judicial Branch estimates that the initial estimated system changes and data exchange work would require 800 hours of programmer time at $150 per hour, with an up-front development cost of $120,000.
• Some respondents and defendants may fail to provide vehicle identification information to the clerk of court, but it cannot be estimated how often this will occur.
• Respondents and defendants who fail to provide vehicle identification information will be held in contempt of court.
• Marginal costs for county jails cannot be estimated due to a lack of data. For purposes of this analysis, the marginal cost for county jails is assumed to be $50 per day.

Fiscal Impact

House File 2346 is estimated to have recurring annual costs of $258,000 to the Judicial Branch, as shown in Table 1 below. Additionally, the Judicial Branch reports estimated initial one-time costs of $120,000 in the first year. The estimated fiscal impact of HF 2346 to the Judicial Branch is $378,000 for FY 2023 and $258,000 for each year after. The Judicial Branch is funded through the General Fund.

Additionally, contempt of court penalties may result in fine revenue and costs to counties due to county jail time. However, the fiscal impact of contempt of court penalties resulting from HF 2346 cannot be estimated due to a lack of data.

Sources

• Judicial Branch
• Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning Division, Department of Human Rights