602.6105 Places of holding court — magistrate schedules.

1. Courts shall be held at the places in each county maintaining space for the district court as designated by the chief judge of the judicial district, except that the determination of actions, special proceedings, and other matters not requiring a jury may be done at some other place in the district with the consent of the parties. For the purposes of this subsection, contiguous counties which have entered into an agreement to share costs pursuant to section 331.381, subsection 16, paragraph “b”, shall be considered as one unit for the purpose of conducting all matters except as otherwise provided in this subsection.

2. In any county having two county seats, court shall be held at each county seat.

3. a. The chief judge of a judicial district shall designate times and places for magistrates to hold court to ensure accessibility of magistrates at all times throughout the district. The schedule of times and places of availability of magistrates and any schedule changes shall be disseminated by the chief judge to the peace officers within the district.

b. (1) The chief judge of a judicial district shall schedule a magistrate to hold court in a city other than the county seat if all of the following apply:

(a) Magistrate court was regularly scheduled in the city on or after July 1, 2001.

(b) The population of the city is at least two times greater than the population of the county seat or the population of the city is at least thirty thousand.

(c) The city requests the chief judge to schedule magistrate court.

(2) In addition to paying the costs in section 602.1303, subsection 1, the city requesting the magistrate court shall pay any other costs for holding magistrate court in the city which would not otherwise have been incurred by the judicial branch.

83 Acts, ch 186, §7105, 10201; 92 Acts, ch 1164, §4; 2003 Acts, ch 151, §33; 2013 Acts, ch 30, §261; 2015 Acts, ch 138, §70, 161, 162