In this video, our Polk County Civil Defense attorneys will discuss what types of court orders can be appealed, how the Iowa appeal process works, deadlines for filing an appeal and any associated paperwork, what happens after the appeal is filed, what actions the appeals court can take after hearing a case, and what happens if you lose an appeal. We’ll begin with a short overview of how the appeals process works in Iowa.

In this video, our Polk County Civil Defense attorneys will discuss how Motion for Summary Judgment can seem like a convoluted process at first, but it really boils down to three parts.

Part 1: The filing party presents their version of the facts. A brief called a Memorandum in Support of the Summary Judgment is filed with the summary judgment. The filing party includes information from the discovery process including photos, signed statements, pertinent documents, and any other evidence to back up their argument about the facts. The filing party need not show that both parties agree on every fact in the case (if this were the case then there would likely be no reason to go to trial), or that the filing party’s story is truer than the defendants, just that there are no reasonably disputable facts that are essential to the claim, indicating that there would be nothing for the judge or jury to decide if the trial actually took place.

Part 2: The filing party’s attorney presents his or her arguments in regard to the law. As part of the brief presented supporting the Motion for Summary Judgment statutes and previous court rulings that argue in favor of the motion are cited in an attempt to convince the judge that, according to the law, the filing party should win the case.

Part 3: After the motion and memorandum have been filed the opposing party will file a brief called a Response, making the legal or factual argument that 1) the other party’s claims or defenses are genuinely disputable; 2) despite no dispute against the filing party’s claim, there are other facts or legal considerations which can overcome the motion; 3) established statutory law or case law should not allow the other party to win at trial.  After the opposing party has filed the Response brief the original party that filed the motion will have a chance to file a Reply brief, responding to the defense against the Motion for Summary Judgment. Typically, the filing party will have a decent idea of what the opposing party will argue and will already have an argument ready to counter.

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In this video, our Polk County civil defense attorneys explain how defamation in Iowa is considered any statement, written or oral, that can bring harm to a person’s reputation, incite hatred, or result in economic hardship for a business. Libel and slander are the two torts under Iowa defamation law; libel refers to written statements and slander refers to oral statements. Defamation laws in Iowa are meant to protect an Iowa resident’s rights to enjoy a reputation unmarred by false and defamatory attacks. Concerning defamation, the law considered government officials (current or retired) and celebrities (newly established or longstanding) public individuals. Most defamation claims brought by a public figure include stories posted or reported on by the media. Public figures in Iowa have a harder time litigating defamation cases because they must prove the statement was made with actual malice, meaning the statement is false or mostly false and knowingly published by the media outlet with a reckless disregard for the truth.