Pay judges more, Iowa’s chief justice tells lawmakers

DES MOINES — Shortages of court reporters and contract lawyers continue to challenge Iowa’s courts, Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Christensen said Wednesday — as does low pay for Iowa judges, who are paying more of their salaries into their pensions.

Christensen, delivering the annual Condition of the Judiciary address to the Iowa Legislature, said the judicial branch is working to solve the shortages of court reporters and contract attorneys in order to avoid delayed justice. But more investment and action is needed by state lawmakers to address the crisis.

Christensen was appointed in 2018 by Gov. Kim Reynolds to serve on the seven-member Iowa Supreme Court and became chief justice in 2020.

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This year, she is asking lawmakers for a 4.3 percent increase in funding for Iowa’s judicial branch to increase pay for judges and for private lawyers who agree to represent indigent defendants.

“My battle cry this year is the same as last year. The state must fulfill its constitutional duty to provide criminal defendants with the right to counsel,” Christensen said.

More broadly, Iowa’s top judicial officer said rural Iowa needs more lawyers, and suggested lawmakers look at options like student loan forgiveness, stipends and tax breaks to incentivize them to "hang out a shingle" in rural areas.

Most charged in Iowa can’t afford lawyers

The state faces a growing shortfall of private lawyers willing to contract with the state’s public defender’s office to represent indigent defendants.

Ninety-five percent of Iowa’s nearly 10,000 licensed lawyers are not signed up to accept court appointments to represent juveniles and indigent defendants, Christensen said. Yet about 90 percent of those who face criminal charges in Iowa can’t afford to hire a lawyer and qualify for a public defender or court-appointed lawyer, according to the Office of the Iowa State Public Defender.

Lawmakers last year approved funding to increase the pay of private lawyers who agree to represent indigent defendants by $5 an hour and provide $35 an hour for travel time, plus mileage, as some spend hours driving around Iowa to court hearings. But Iowa still pays below that of every surrounding state.

She said the problem is particularly acute in Eastern Iowa, where the lawyers can now earn nearly twice as much doing contract work across the river in Illinois.

Pay boost

Christensen also called on lawmakers to increase judicial pay.

“For those of you who have listened to my prior speeches, I have never broached the topic of either pay or pension for our judges,” she said. “I talk about these things one-on-one with you during our session meetings, but I have never used the State of the Judiciary as a soapbox to relay that message. This year is different.”

Salaries by judges are set by statute. In the last 15 years, judges have received five pay increases. Christensen said Iowa judges make $16,000 less per year than judges in South Dakota and $38,000 less per year than judges in Nebraska.

She said the number of applicants for district court judge vacancies has decreased over 20 years, from an average of 17 applicants per opening to 6.5.

“This dramatic decrease in applicants is deeply distressing,” Christensen said. “Being appointed by the governor to the bench should be the pinnacle of an attorney’s career, not a deep financial sacrifice.”

Christensen also called on lawmakers to make changes to the Judicial Retirement System. Until recently, judges paid a fixed contribution. But in fiscal 2022, the judicial pension system reached a “fully funded status” and switched from a fixed to variable contribution rate. Judges’ contribution rates now are subject to fluctuations, Christensen said.

“Judges are paying more of their salaries into their pension,” she said. “When you combine stagnant salaries with increasing pension rates, we end up with every single judge in the state experiencing a net pay decrease.”

The judicial branch has filed a bill that would return the judicial pension system to a fixed contribution rate, which Christensen said would provide stability.

Increases for judicial pay and changes to the Judicial Retirement System were not brought forward by Reynolds or Republican House and Senate leaders, who earlier this week laid out their plans for the legislative session now underway.

Sen. Julian Garrett, a Republican from Indianola who serves as chair of the Iowa Senate’s judicial budget committee, said he predicts lawmakers this year will approve increased funding for the Iowa Judicial Branch. “The question is, how much?” Garrett told The Gazette.

He would not say whether that would include Christensen’s requests to increase pay for judges and contract lawyers, or fix rates for judicial pension contributions.

“It would probably safe to say we’d visit it. I wouldn’t want to make a commitment at this point,” Garrett said.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, R-Grimes, echoed Garrett. “We’ve discussed those issues over the years, and I look forward to those conversations as we go through the budgeting process,” he said.

Mending fences with lawmakers

In addition to legislative and budget requests, Christensen asked the lawmakers for support in explaining and defending the judicial process — even in cases when they disagree with court decisions.

Reynolds and Republican lawmakers have expressed disappointment or criticized the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision last June that blocked enforcement of a 2018 law banning most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. Lawmakers last year passed a new law — which remains tied up in court — during a rare special session that would ban most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.

Republican lawmakers have also accused the court of improperly interpreting transcripts of legislative debates to strike down laws, leading some legislators to refuse to answer Democrats’ questions to avoid their answers being cited in future Iowa Supreme Court rulings.

Christiansen said that while she has also disagreed with some decisions made in Iowa courts, that she believes all judges are trying their best to apply the Iowa laws to the case at hand and make a “thoughtful decision.”

“If your constituents tell you, ‘Hey, a judge so and so got something wrong,’ or maybe you tell your constituents the same thing — that is your right to hold such a belief,” Christensen said. “I may even agree with you. But what I’m asking you to do is to take that opportunity to explain that even when you think a judge is dead wrong, they are public servants just like you, and they are committed to the rule of law, just as you would want them to be.”

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com