Iowa Supreme Court publishes order regarding the report of the Family Law Task Force
Posted on 10/13/2016 at 12:00 AM by Mary Zambreno
Today – October 13, 2016 – the Iowa Supreme Court filed an Order regarding the report and some of the recommendations of the Family Law Case Processing Reform Task Force, which had previously been assembled “to identify best practices for accessible, transparent, and consistent family law processes and to propose recommendations for new court processes and improvements to current processes for statewide adoption.”
The Order can be found here and the Task Force’s report can be found here.
One of the more critical decisions of the Supreme Court in its Order was to decline any action towards a uniform spousal support guideline. We previously wrote about the recent Iowa cases examining the advantages and disadvantages of a spousal support guideline – similar to our state’s child support guidelines. Some of the advantages noted were that a uniform guideline would create more predictability in family law cases where alimony was at stake, while some of the disadvantages noted were that a uniform guideline might take away the judge’s discretion in some unique circumstances.
In its report, the Task Force indicated that there was no consensus among the Task Force members regarding the adoption of alimony guidelines because there was a lack of standard of living data sufficient to assure fairness across the board. The Task Force did acknowledge that much support for alimony guidelines exists among family law practitioners.
Other decisions from the Supreme Court included the adoption of a recommendation by the Task Force of an informal and expedited family law trial track for easy-to-resolve cases in a short, informal trial. The Court also requested public comment on a proposed rule that would require parties to be present for temporary custody hearings. A copy of that request for public comment can be found here.
The material in this blog is not intended, nor should it be construed or relied upon, as legal advice. Please consult with an attorney if specific legal information is needed.
- Mary Zambreno
Categories: Mary Zambreno, Family Law
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