District court, Judicial District 4

Richard H. Davidson

District Court Judge · District 4

About

Appointed to this post in 2009¹
Next on the ballot: November 2028, in District 4²

Judge Davidson was appointed to the bench in 2009. He attended Drake University where he earned a Bachelors of Arts Degree in 1981 and a Juris Doctorate in 1984. He then moved to Washington D.C. where he served as a Trial Attorney for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission until May…

Full biography on iowacourts.gov

Retention votes

Election	Yes	No	Kept by
November 8, 2022	32,434	14,664	68.9% 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

95% of 50 responding lawyers said to keep the judge (2022).

Question	2022
Knowledge and use of the law	4.33
Sees the facts of a case clearly	4.29
On time for court	4.07
Listens to arguments and testimony	4.41
Runs the courtroom well	4.45
Temperament and manner	4.49
Clear, well-written decisions	4.33
Rules promptly	3.83
Uses technology to improve the courts	4.36
Avoids needless personal criticism	4.45
Decides on the law and facts, not outside pressure	4.44
Courteous and patient	4.60
Treats people equally	4.79
Fair to people without a lawyer	4.70
Said to keep the judge	95%
Lawyers responding	50

Source: Iowa State Bar Association Judicial Performance Review: 2022 (page 32).

Appeals from this judge’s cases

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

Susan Ronnfeldt v. Shelby County Chris A. Myrtue Memorial Hospital d/b/a Myrtue Medical Center and Shelby County Medical Corp.
Iowa Supreme Court · January 6, 2023 · Shelby County · REVERSED
AI summary A person filed a medical malpractice lawsuit but later voluntarily withdrew the case. The district court overturned that withdrawal and instead dismissed the case permanently because the person failed to file a required legal document on time. The Iowa Supreme…

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.