Des Moines · Iowa Code ch. 664A and ch. 236 foursafeguards.org · 2026
Four Safeguards

Campaign

Criminal orders first. Civil temporary orders second.

Courts tolerate ex parte orders only with four safeguards. Iowa's criminal no-contact order skips them.

A verified, specific claim of imminent harm. A fixed short duration. A prompt evidentiary hearing. Candor by the applicant, with a real remedy when that candor fails.

Those four conditions are what Connecticut v. Doehr, Blazel, Micallef, DK v Crowley, Baril, and the English Family Division actually require. Iowa Code chapter 664A, the criminal side, has the mandatory arrest and the seven-day jail term, and it does not have the hearing, the fixed end, the findings, or the candor duty. Chapter 236, the civil temporary order, has a hearing date on paper and still lets a one-sided assertion of "present danger" exclude someone from home.

Scored against Iowa

Four safeguards, two chapters

  1. I

    Specific imminent harm, verified

    Partial

    Chapter 236, civil

    Final order: assault required. Ex parte: the petitioner's assertion of present danger (§ 236.4).

    Miss

    Chapter 664A, criminal

    Probable cause plus a safety finding (§ 664A.3). Five-year order: no stated reasons, per the Hall report (§ 664A.5).

  2. II

    Fixed short duration

    Meets

    Chapter 236, civil

    Hearing in 5–15 days (§ 236.4). Emergency order: 72 hours (§ 236.6).

    Miss

    Chapter 664A, criminal

    Life of the case, then up to five years (§ 664A.3, § 664A.5).

  3. III

    Prompt evidentiary hearing

    Partial

    Chapter 236, civil

    The hearing happens. Preponderance. Incidents can be added. No respondent fees.

    Miss

    Chapter 664A, criminal

    No hearing on the order. The extension burden sits on the defendant.

  4. IV

    Candor, with a remedy

    Miss

    Chapter 236, civil

    Perjury exists and is rare. A winning respondent still pays his own appeal.

    Miss

    Chapter 664A, criminal

    Same gap. The contempt minimum (§ 664A.7) applies to thin contact.

What has been measured

4.9Relative risk. Temporary orders and more police-reported psychological abuse over twelve months. Holt, Kernic, Wolf, and Rivara, JAMA 2002. Interval 2.8–8.6.
0.2Relative risk. Permanent orders and less police-reported physical violence over twelve months. Same study. Interval 0.1–0.8.
0.59Odds ratio. Four studies pooled by Dowling and colleagues, Australian Institute of Criminology, 2018. The authors call the effect small. Interval 0.47–0.73.

Iowa publishes neither number for chapter 236 or chapter 664A. The certain harms — jail, home exclusion, firearms, custody history from the mere filing, appeals that die when the year runs out — are measured by the statute. The safety benefit is not. Orders are not the same policy, and this site does not claim they never work.

Criminal, first

664A

Entered at the first appearance

Iowa's magistrate "shall" enter a § 664A.3 order at initial appearance. It can last the life of the case and then five years under § 664A.5. State v. Hall (May 2026, secondary report) says the five-year order needs no stated reasons. Violation carries a mandatory seven consecutive days in jail under § 664A.7, and § 664A.6 requires arrest on probable cause of a violation.

Civil, second

236

A hearing date, a one-sided start

The hearing is set 5 to 15 days out under § 236.4. Emergency orders last 72 hours under § 236.6. The ex parte stage is "present danger" in the petitioner's own papers. Appeal courts do enforce the assault predicate later. They do not give the respondent a fee remedy when the petition fails.

Cheapest change

14

Days to a hearing, not a repeal

One hearing, on request, within 14 days, with the State proving the criminal order must continue. Written findings before any five-year order. A candor recital and a fee shift on the civil side. An annual public count of what happened next.

The lever, in order of cost →

Documented harms The measurement gap Full research