Iowa law requires that criminal defendants who invoke a “stand your ground” defense must have informed law-enforcement authorities of the use of deadly force. That requirement, on its face, may or may not violate a defendant’s constitutional rights, but a defendant’s Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination …
Two Wapello County residents who brought nuisance suits against operators of hog confinements and later voluntarily dropped them must pay the defendants’ costs, including legal fees, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled March 27.
Michael Merrill and Karen Jo Frescoln were among two of 70 original plaintiffs in Honom …
Homeowners may have to pay a contractor for labor and materials in a mechanic’s lien foreclosure, but they cannot be forced to forfeit their homestead to cover the contractor’s legal fees, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled. That is, however, unless the homesteader waits too long to make that claim.
That was the good-news, …
What is a non-profit institution to do when a gift becomes a burden?
That is more or less the predicament Coe College found itself in when it learned that a collection of Grant Wood paintings given to the Cedar Rapids school decades earlier, and which had grown significantly in value, could not be sold without violating …
Jurors in a Pottawattamie County medical malpractice trial submitted a question to the court during jury deliberations about the meaning of instructions given to them by the trial judge for apportioning fault to a settled party, but the judge did not commit a prejudicial error by failing to cla …
Iowa’s statute governing hazardous underground pipelines that allows pipeline developers to enter private property to conduct surveys against a landowner’s will is not an unconstitutional taking, the Iowa Supreme Court held in a Nov. 22 decision.
In its first decision addressing a 2022 constitutional amendment that for the first time recognizes a “fundamental” right to bear arms in the Iowa Constitution, a divided Iowa Supreme Court affirmed the Pottawattamie District Court’s ruling denying an Iowa man’s bid to have his firearms rights restored after those rights had been revoked.
The Iowa Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Nov. 19 in an evening session in Marshalltown in a case that involves the legality of a home search under the Iowa Constitution.
The Nov. 19 argument in Marshalltown is one in a series of court sessions held outside of the Judicial Branch Building in Des Moines to give Iowa …
A manufacturer’s written package insert regarding the use of an obstetrical vacuum used to deliver a baby born with brain damage contained hearsay that should not have been allowed into evidence in a medical malpractice trial that resulted in a $97 million jury verdict, the Iowa Supreme Court held in a unanimous ruling issued Nov. 8.
On Brief: Iowa’s Appellate Blog is devoted to appellate litigation with a focus on the Iowa Supreme Court, the Iowa Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
