District court, Judicial District 3

Steven J. Andreasen

District Court Judge · District 3B

About

Appointed to this post in 2008¹
Next on the ballot: November 2028, in District 3B²

Judge Andreasen was appointed as a district judge in January 2008. He had served as a magistrate in Woodbury County in 2006 and 2007 before his appointment to the bench. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa in 1989 and his law degree from the same institution…

Full biography on iowacourts.gov

Retention votes

Election	Yes	No	Kept by
November 8, 2022	33,120	9,432	77.8% 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 81 responding lawyers said to keep the judge (2022).

Question	2022
Knowledge and use of the law	4.64
Sees the facts of a case clearly	4.61
On time for court	4.60
Listens to arguments and testimony	4.72
Runs the courtroom well	4.71
Temperament and manner	4.76
Clear, well-written decisions	4.59
Rules promptly	2.77
Uses technology to improve the courts	4.49
Avoids needless personal criticism	4.72
Decides on the law and facts, not outside pressure	4.75
Courteous and patient	4.80
Treats people equally	4.82
Fair to people without a lawyer	4.77
Said to keep the judge	95%
Lawyers responding	81

Source: Iowa State Bar Association Judicial Performance Review: 2022 (page 31).

Appeals from this judge’s cases

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

Criminal appeal No. 24-1563
Iowa Supreme Court · October 9, 2026 · Woodbury County · Court of appeals decision and district court judgment affirmed
AI summary The defendant challenged his conviction for sexual abuse, arguing that a video of the incident should not have been allowed as evidence in court. The court affirmed the lower court's decision to admit the video, finding that the evidence was properly authentic…
Criminal appeal No. 24-0053
Iowa Supreme Court · February 14, 2025 · Woodbury County · Sentence Vacated in Part and Case Remanded for Resentencing
AI summary The defendant appealed his sentence for a felony conviction, arguing that the fine was incorrect and that the prohibition on owning a firearm was unconstitutional. The court vacated part of the sentence and sent the case back to the lower court for resentencin…

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.