1. The chief judge of the judicial district may appoint a referee in probate for the auditing of the accounts of fiduciaries and for the performance of other ministerial duties the chief judge prescribes. A person shall not be appointed as referee in a matter where the person is acting as a fiduciary or as the attorney.

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Terms Used In Iowa Code 633.20

  • Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
  • Clerk: means "clerk of the district court" in the county in which the matter is pending and includes the term "clerk of the probate court". See Iowa Code 633.3
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, or government; governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality; or any other legal or commercial entity. See Iowa Code 633.701
  • Probate: Proving a will
 2. The chief judge of the judicial district may appoint the clerk as referee in probate. In such cases, the fees received by the clerk for serving in the capacity of referee are fees of the office of the clerk of court and shall be deposited in the account established under section 602.8108.
 3. A person appointed as an associate probate judge shall have jurisdiction to audit accounts of fiduciaries and to perform ministerial duties as a referee provided in this section and shall have additional jurisdiction to perform the judicial functions provided in section 633.20D.