District court, Judicial District 4

Justin Wyatt

District Court Judge · District 4 · Mills County

About

Appointed to this post in 2024¹
Next on the ballot: November 2032, in District 4²

Judge Wyatt, Mills County, was appointed District Court Judge in 2024. He earned his undergraduate degree from Creighton University in 1998 and his Juris Doctorate from Creighton University School of Law in 2003. Judge Wyatt was appointed district associate judge in 2022. Prior to his appointment, he had been in private…

Full biography on iowacourts.gov

Retention votes

Election	Yes	No	Kept by
November 3, 2026	33,088	15,581	68.0% 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

91.8% of 49 responding lawyers said to keep the judge (2026).

Question	2026
Knowledge and use of the law	4.3
Sees the facts of a case clearly	4.2
On time for court	4.5
Listens to arguments and testimony	4.3
Runs the courtroom well	4.3
Temperament and manner	4.4
Clear, well-written decisions	4.4
Rules promptly	4.4
Uses technology to improve the courts	4.6
Avoids needless personal criticism	4.4
Decides on the law and facts, not outside pressure	4.4
Courteous and patient	4.4
Treats people equally	4.6
Fair to people without a lawyer	4.5
Said to keep the judge	91.8%
Lawyers responding	49

Source: Iowa State Bar Association Judicial Performance Review: 2026 (page 39).

Appeals from this judge’s cases

1 appeal on record; 0 reversed or vacated at least in part.⁴

State of Iowa, ex rel. Iowa Department of Transportation v. Honey Creek Drainage District No. 6 Board of Trustees, Robert D. Hansen, Mason J…
Iowa Supreme Court · April 3, 2026 · Pottawattamie County · Affirmed as Modified
AI summary The dispute involved whether certain drainage districts followed the correct legal procedures when reclassifying their districts and assessing benefits. The court upheld a decision to set aside a reclassification and addressed how assessments should be handled…

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.