(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in a case asking them to stop the practice of charging court appointed lawyer fees when charges are dismissed. Alex Kornya is a lawyer working with the Iowa A-C-L-U on the case. “We essentially said that there is no statute in the Iowa code that would allow for these debts to be assessed a position with which the state in fact did not disagree,” Kornya says. “The state’s position was that prior case law of the court would justify this, but we all agreed that there’s nothing in the Iowa Code that would allow for these types of debts to be assessed.”

The Iowa Supreme Court heard arguments on a similar case back in 2020, but one justice recused himself from the case and it ended with a 3-3 decision and no change. Kornya says those who end up being charged the fees can end up being thousands of dollars in debt. “By and large, the lions share of the debt that we were talking about only applies to some criminal defendants, specifically people who do not have the money to hire their own attorney,” he says. He says Iowa is one of the few states that charges full legal fees instead of a flat rate.

The justices of the Iowa Supreme Court. Chief Justice Susan Christensen is in the middle of first row. (Iowa Judicial Branch photo)

Kornya says the debt puts a burden on the people who often end up unable to pay. “Between 2017 and 2021, statistics published by the Judicial Branch to the Iowa legislature shows that the collection rate was between one and two percent, which is effectively zero,” Kornya says.

The justices raised several questions about procedures and precedents during the arguments. They will make a ruling at a later date.