District court, Judicial District 5

Jeffrey D. Farrell

District Court Judge · District 5C · Polk County

About

Appointed to this post in 2013¹
Next on the ballot: November 2028, in District 5C²

Judge Farrell, Polk County, was appointed to the bench in 2013. He received his BA in 1986 and JD in 1989, both from the University of Iowa. He was a law clerk for the Fifth Judicial District from 1989–1991. Judge Farrell served for twelve years as an assistant attorney general…

Full biography on iowacourts.gov

Retention votes

Election	Yes	No	Kept by
November 8, 2022	76,984	38,067	66.9% yes

What lawyers said

Before each retention vote, the Iowa State Bar Association asks lawyers who’ve appeared before the judge to rate them from 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent), and whether the judge should be kept.³

94% of 149 responding lawyers said to keep the judge (2022).

Question	2022
Knowledge and use of the law	4.52
Sees the facts of a case clearly	4.54
On time for court	4.77
Listens to arguments and testimony	4.68
Runs the courtroom well	4.73
Temperament and manner	4.64
Clear, well-written decisions	4.64
Rules promptly	4.62
Uses technology to improve the courts	4.65
Avoids needless personal criticism	4.67
Decides on the law and facts, not outside pressure	4.56
Courteous and patient	4.72
Treats people equally	4.70
Fair to people without a lawyer	4.64
Said to keep the judge	94%
Lawyers responding	149

Source: Iowa State Bar Association Judicial Performance Review: 2022 (page 35).

Appeals from this judge’s cases

3 appeals on record; 0 reversed or vacated at least in part.⁴

Criminal appeal No. 25-0157
Iowa Supreme Court · May 8, 2026 · Polk County · Affirmed
AI summary An inmate challenged a court decision that dismissed his request for relief because it was filed too late. He argued that the application should be considered timely under the prison mailbox rule. The court affirmed the original decision, meaning the dismissal…
State of Iowa, Ex Rel. Attorney General Brenna Bird v. Tiktok, Inc., Tiktok Ltd, Tiktok Pte. Ltd, Bytedance Ltd. and Bytedance, Inc.
Iowa Supreme Court · January 23, 2026 · Polk County · Affirmed
AI summary The State sued the companies that operate TikTok for allegedly violating Iowa's Consumer Fraud Act. The companies argued that the court did not have the legal authority to make decisions regarding them in this case. The court affirmed the previous ruling, mean…
J. Doe v. Iowa District Court For Polk County
Iowa Supreme Court · March 7, 2025 · Polk County · Writ Annulled
AI summary An individual asked the court to clear their records regarding two parole violation cases. The district court previously refused this request, ruling that a dismissal in a parole case is not the same as a dismissal in a criminal case. The higher court upheld t…

Notes

From the Judicial Branch’s biography of the judge. ↩
Expected: retained judges serve 6 years before the next vote (Iowa Code §46.16). A judge who retires or reaches 72 leaves sooner. ↩
Scores from the Iowa State Bar Association Judicial Performance Review, a survey of Iowa lawyers who appeared before the judge. The ISBA publishes it before each retention election; only the numbers are shown here, with a link to the page of its report they’re on. ↩
Most cases are never appealed, and a reversal can turn on a change in the law or a close question, so these counts say little about a judge’s work on their own. Iowa Funnel has Supreme Court opinions since November 2017 and Court of Appeals opinions from November 2026. ↩

Sources: the Iowa Judicial Branch; retention votes from the Iowa Secretary of State and civicAPI; lawyers’ ratings from the Iowa State Bar Association.