602.8103 General powers.
The clerk may:
1. Administer oaths and take affirmations as provided in § 63A.1.
2. Reproduce original records of the court by any reasonably permanent legible means including, but not limited to, reproduction by photographing, photostating, microfilming, computer cards, and electronic digital format. The reproduction shall include proper indexing. The reproduced record has the same authenticity as the original record. The supreme court shall adopt rules to provide for continued evaluation of the accessibility of records stored or reproduced in electronic digital format.
3. After the original record is reproduced and after approval of a majority of the judges of the district court by court order, destroy the original records including, but not limited to, dockets, journals, scrapbooks, files, and marriage license applications. The order shall state the specific records which are to be destroyed. An original court file shall not be destroyed until after the contents have been reproduced. As used in this subsection and subsection
4, “”destroy”” includes the transmission of the original records which are of general historical
interest to any recognized historical society or association.
4. Destroy the following original records without prior court order or reproduction except as otherwise provided in this subsection:
a. Records including but not limited to journals, scrapbooks, and files, forty years after
final disposition of the case. However, judgments, decrees, stipulations, records in criminal proceedings, probate records, and orders of court shall not be destroyed unless they have been reproduced as provided in subsection 2.
b. Administrative records, after five years, including but not limited to warrants,
subpoenas, clerks’ certificates, statements, praecipes, and depositions.
c. Records, dockets, and court files of civil and criminal actions heard in the municipal court which were transferred to the clerk, other than juvenile and adoption proceedings, or heard in justice of the peace proceedings, after a period of twenty years from the date of filing of the actions.
d. Original court files on dissolutions of marriage, one year after dismissal by the parties or under rule of civil procedure 1.943, Iowa court rules.
e. Small claims files, one year after dismissal with or without prejudice.
f. Uniform traffic citations in the magistrate court or traffic and scheduled violations office, one year after final disposition.
g. Court reporters’ notes and certified transcripts of those notes in civil cases, ten years after final disposition of the case. For purposes of this section, “”final disposition”” means one year after dismissal of the case, after judgment or decree without appeal, or after procedendo or dismissal of appeal is filed in cases where appeal is taken.
h. Court reporters’ notes and certified transcripts of those notes in criminal cases, ten years after dismissal of all charges, or ten years after the expiration of all sentences imposed or the date probation is granted, whichever later occurs. For purposes of this subsection “”sentences imposed”” includes all sentencing options pursuant to § 901.5.
i. Court files, as provided by rules prescribed by the supreme court, ten years after final disposition in civil cases, or ten years after expiration of all sentences in criminal cases. For purposes of this paragraph, “”purging”” means the removal and destruction of documents in the court file which have no legal, administrative, or historical value. Purging shall be done without reproduction of the removed documents. For purposes of this paragraph, “”civil cases”” does not include juvenile, mental health, probate, or adoption proceedings.
j. Court reporters’ notes and certified transcripts of those notes in mental health hearings under § 229.12 and substance use disorder hearings under § 125.82, ninety days after the respondent has been discharged from involuntary custody.
k. Complaints, trial informations, and uniform citations and complaints relating to parking violations under sections 321.236, 321.239, 321.358, 321.360, and 321.361, one year after final disposition.
5. Invest money which is paid to the clerk to be paid to any other person in any of the following:
a. A savings account of a supervised financial organization as defined in § 537.1301,
§602.8103, JUDICIAL BRANCH 2

subsection 45, except a credit union operating pursuant to chapter 533. The provisions of chapter 12C relating to the deposit and investment of public funds apply to the deposit and investment of the money except that a supervised financial organization other than a credit union may be designated as a depository and the money shall be available upon demand. The interest earnings shall be paid into the general fund of the state, except as otherwise provided by law.
b. An open-end management investment company organized in trust form registered
with the federal securities and exchange commission under the federal Investment Company Act of 1940, 15 U.S.C. § 80a-1 et seq., and operated in accordance with 17 C.F.R. §270.2a-7, the portfolio of which is limited to obligations of the United States of America or agencies or instrumentalities of the United States of America and to repurchase agreements fully collateralized by obligations of the United States of America or an agency or instrumentality of the United States of America if the investment company takes delivery of the collateral either directly or through an authorized custodian.
6. Establish and maintain a procedure to set off against amounts held by the clerk of the district court and payable to the person any debt which is in the form of a liquidated sum due, owing and payable to the clerk. The procedure shall meet all of the following conditions:
a. Before setoff, the clerk shall provide written notice to the debtor of the clerk’s claim
to all or a portion of the amount held by the clerk for the debtor and the clerk’s right to recover the amount of the claim through the setoff procedure, the opportunity to request in writing, that a jointly or commonly owned right to payment be divided among owners, and the opportunity to give written notice to the clerk of the district court of the person’s intent to contest the amount of the claim. The debtor must file a notice of intent to contest the claim within fifteen days after the mailing of the notice of claim by the clerk or, if the notice of claim was provided by the clerk at the time the debtor appeared in the clerk’s office to claim payment, within fifteen days of that date.
b. Upon the request of the debtor or the owner of a jointly or commonly owned right to
payment, the clerk of the district court shall divide the payment. Unless otherwise stated in a judgment or court order, any jointly or commonly owned right to payment is presumed to be owned in equal portions by joint or common owners.
c. Upon timely filing of a notice of intent to contest the setoff, the matter shall be set for
hearing before a judge or magistrate. The clerk shall notify the debtor in writing of the time and date of the hearing.
d. If the claim is not contested or upon final determination of a contested claim authorizing
a setoff, the clerk shall set off the debt against any amount the clerk is holding for payment to the debtor and pay any balance of the amount to the debtor. The amount set off shall be applied by the clerk of the district court according to the order of priority set out in section
602.8107, subsection 2.
83 Acts, ch 186, §9103, 10201; 88 Acts, ch 1030, §1, 2; 89 Acts, ch 160, §1; 94 Acts, ch 1070,
§1; 96 Acts, ch 1019, §2 – 4; 97 Acts, ch 128, §2; 99 Acts, ch 144, §7; 2002 Acts, ch 1119, §106;
2007 Acts, ch 71, §2; 2013 Acts, ch 90, §169; 2014 Acts, ch 1092, §193; 2023 Acts, ch 19, §1268
Subsection 4, paragraph j amended