Iowa Code 252B.25 – Contempt — combining actions
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Terms Used In Iowa Code 252B.25
- Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
- Court: shall mean and include any court upon which jurisdiction has been conferred to determine the liability of persons for the support of dependents. See Iowa Code 252A.2
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Obligor: means the person legally responsible for the support of a child as defined in section 252D. See Iowa Code 252B.1
- state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories, and the words "United States" may include the said district and territories. See Iowa Code 4.1
- Unit: means the child support recovery unit created in section 252B. See Iowa Code 252B.1
Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, if an obligor has been ordered to provide support in more than one order, the unit may bring a single action for contempt to enforce the multiple orders. However, if the obligor objects to the consolidation of the actions regarding multiple orders into a single action for contempt, and the court determines that severance of the single action into multiple actions is in the interest of justice, the unit shall bring multiple actions for contempt to enforce the multiple orders. If the single action is brought and the obligor does not object, the unit shall file the action in the district court of a county where the obligor resides, or if the obligor does not reside in the state, in the district court of the county where at least one of the support orders was entered or registered. For the purposes of this section, the district court where the unit files the action shall have jurisdiction and authority over all other support orders for the obligor entered or registered by a court of this state and affected under this section. In such case, the unit shall also file a document with the clerk of court in each county affected specifying the county where the action under this section was filed and the disposition of the action.