Before punishing for contempt, unless the offender is already in the presence of the court, the offender must be served personally with an order to show cause against the punishment, and a reasonable time given the offender therefor; or the offender may be brought before the court forthwith, or on a given day, by warrant, if necessary. In either case the offender may, at the offender’s option, make a written explanation of the offender’s conduct under oath, which must be filed and preserved.
Iowa Code § 665.7
Notice to show cause
Applied in 11 court decisions — leading case Zimmermann v. Iowa District Court for Benton County (1992)
Most recently applied in Dennis Workman v. Iowa District Court for Muscatine County (July 2018)
[C51, §1603; R60, §2693; C73, §3496; C97, §4465; C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, §12546; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §665.7] 2010 Acts, ch 1159, §15
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Iowa Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Iowa statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.