Linn County issued the following release on July 29:
Linn County Juvenile, Traffic and Small Claims Courts, as well as Administrative Services, will move to the Palmer Building on the corner of Fifth Street and Second Avenue in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday, July 30, 2008.
Approximately 40 probation officers, 30 clerks of court, Linn County Magistrates, District Court Associates and several civil attorneys will also begin operating from this temporary location on July 31. According to Mike Goldberg, Administrative Services Director, court-related functions will occupy the basement and the first floor of the building and Juvenile probation officers will occupy half of the second floor.
Linn County Administrative Services, the Board of Supervisors, a portion of the County Attorney’s Office, Finance and Budget, Human Resources, and Risk Management will occupy the remainder of the 2nd and all of the 3rd floors. Each floor has about 8,400 square feet of usable space.
“We initially leased the building for the portion of the State court system that will not be able to return to the first floor of the Courthouse for some time,” Goldberg said. “It then seemed logical to move the administrative functions to this temporary location and keep the criminal courts in one place. Jury trials will be held in the rooms vacated by County Administrative Support Services and the Board of Supervisors at Kirkwood’s Continuing Education Building until the return to the upper floors of the Courthouse in October,” he added. “They’re happy to all stay in one place – and it is more efficient.”
Goldberg also said that the Administrative Support Services and Board of Supervisors move to the Palmer Building meets the FEMA reimbursement requirement of moving to “comparable pre-disaster” space. The Palmer building was already furnished and wired to meet Information Technology (IT) needs. “Parking will be a challenge, but we just keep reminding people that this is temporary,” Goldberg said.
The Board of Supervisors will hold some meetings at Westdale Mall to meet with county staff located there.
“While there have been challenges relocating county offices, everyone is doing an excellent job,” said Linda Langston, Chairperson of the Linn County Board of Supervisors.
Linn County has leased the space and furnishing at $38,000 per month for one year. FEMA will compensate the County for expenses associated with temporary relocation of critical functions. Telephone numbers for the county departments housed in this building will remain the same.
County buildings damaged by the flooding are being evaluated by architect and engineering teams. Discussion of buildings and their future uses is anticipated to begin in the near future as the engineering and architectural evaluations are completed.
Thomson West is extending an offer to assist flood-affected attorneys and firms in replacing their damaged and lost print libraries by offering a 50% off discount on replacement libraries. Thomson West has also set up a dedicated hotline for West customers affected by the flooding. Contact West Customer Service at 1-800-328-4880, ext. 67281. Westlaw® customers can also contact their Sales representative, and West’s Reference Attorneys also are available to help support research needs. The letter from Thomson West’s President & CEO regarding this offer can be viewed here.
As posted previously, state CLE credit in the amount of 5.5 hours was approved for the LCBA Annual Meeting & Flood Recovery Seminar held June 26. Jane Carson of Carson Reporting generously transcribed the presentations for the LCBA free-of-charge and the participants provided their outlines in pdf or powerpoint format.
The Iowa State Bar Association and American Bar Association-Young Lawyers Division have set up disaster legal services on-site assistance at FEMA Disaster Recovery Center 9, which is located in Westdall Mall (across from The Buckle) in Cedar Rapids. The ISBA & ABA-YLD would like to staff the table for about three weeks, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., with attorneys taking four-hour shifts. Attorneys are needed for shifts starting Monday, July 7.
Volunteer attorneys staff the table and provide advice and counsel to the disaster victims as the attorneys are able. If attorneys are unable to handle the question on-site, the attorneys fill out an intake form and forward it to the ISBA. The intake forms then are distributed in the same manner as they are distributed for the hotline project about which you
may have heard. Click here for the directions for volunteer attorneys.
Mileage reimbursement may be available for the volunteer attorneys from FEMA.
Persons interested in staffing the table for a shift should contact Tracy L. Deutmeyer at (402) 341-3070 or via email at tdeutmeyer@mcgrathnorth.com.
On July 1, 2008, the Iowa Supreme Court issued a Supervisory Order regarding the dates for which certain district courts were considered “closed pursuant to the authority of the Supreme Court for purposes of Iowa Code section 4.1(34).” Included in the list is the Linn County Courthouse for dates June 11, 12, 13 and 16 and Benton County Courthouse for dates June 11, 12 and 13. The Order further states: Read the rest of this entry »
On June 30, 2008, the Sixth Judicial District issued a second flood-related Administrative Order. The Order provides that since the Linn County Clerk of Court’s office and Court Administration offices have been relocated to the Kirkwood Community College Continuing Education Center in Cedar Rapids and been in operation since June 19, there is no longer any necessity for maintaining a satellite office for the Linn County Clerk of Court in JonesCounty or for continuing to permit faxes of signed court orders to the Clerk of Court. The full text of the Order can be viewed here: Flood Supervisory Order No. 2
The first flood-related Administrative Order, dated June 16, 2008, can be viewed here: Administrative Order. NOTE: As of June 30, the court was continuing to have problems with the direct number for court administration (319-398-3920. Another number which can be used to reach court administration is (319)-398-3411 and then pressing ”1″.
Also on June 30, the Iowa Supreme Court issued a notice on its website pertaining to the closing of the Linn County Courthouse and computation of filing deadlines. The introductory link to the notice is captioned “Flood-related information as of 3:45 p.m. (June 30, 2008). Statewide court closings due to flooding will be updated as information becomes available.” The Notice states:
The following court offices have been closed pursuant to the authority of the Supreme Court.Statewide court-related closings will be updated as information becomes available.
Linn County courthouse is closed indefinitely. Court business will be operated at facilities at Kirkwood Community College, 7725 Kirkwood Boulevard, Cedar Rapids, beginning Monday, June 23.Flood-related emergency procedures for the Linn County District Court are now in effect.(updated 9:00 a.m. June 20)
The Linn County Clerk of Court’s satellite office is closed effective June 27th, 2008.Court administration is experiencing problems with its direct phone number.Court administration can be reached by calling (319) 398-3411 and pressing 1. (updated 3:30 p.m. June 30)
Polk County Juvenile Court Services offices in the River Place site have been closed and staff relocated to other locations until further order of the Court.If you have questions about an appointment, please call 286-3960 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. (updated 5:00 p.m. June 15)
All other county courthouses are open and operating on normal schedules.
See Iowa Code section 4.1(34) and Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 1.1801 for computation of filing deadlines when the office of the clerk of the district court is closed pursuant to the authority of the supreme court.
State CLE credit in the amount of 5.5 hours has been approved for the LCBA Annual Meeting & Flood Recovery Seminar as follows:
Program Name:LCBA Annual Meeting & Flood Recovery Seminar Sponsor: LINN COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION Date:6/26/2008 City:Cedar Rapids Class Type: Standard (live) Total CLE Hours Approved: 5.5 Ethics Hours Approved: 0 Activity Number: 51744
CLICK here for TRANSCRIPT of Todd Scott presentation on “Considerations for Displaced Attorneys from a Malpractice Standpoint”
Click here for TRANSCRIPT of Kerry Finley and Kyle Wilcox’s presentation on FEMA & SBA overview
Here is the PowerPoint Presentation file from the FEMA/SBA presentation.
The LCBA is extremely fortunate to have three members of New Orleans law firm Sher, Garner, Cahill, Richter, Klein & Hilbert, LLC speaking at the Flood Seminar today. In panel, question & answer format, Leopold Sher, James M. Garner, and Elwood Cahill are sharing a wealth of information likely to be of tremendous help to Linn County attorneys facing a multitude of flood issues.
For those of you who are unable to attend the seminar, you will be able to view the presentation online, thanks to the Iowa State Bar Association, which will be posting a video of the entire seminar online at its website.
ISBA President Dan Moore has established a task force to assist the law firms and attorneys who have been displaced by the tornadoes and floods this spring.
An estimated 40 firms and 250 attorneys have had to seek alternate arrangements in Linn County alone. Other areas of eastern Iowa also have been affected by the flooding.
Made up of a cross section of members, the task force has already set up a special section on the ISBA website (see here) where attorneys in the state can submit information about displaced attorneys, search for contact information about those displaced and offer help in the form of office supplies, office furniture, computers, office space, etc. One of the most pressing needs right now is for conference rooms for meetings and depositions.
The task force has also set up a Legal Community Relief Fund to receive monetary contributions. The fund is administered by The Iowa State Bar Association. Contributions should be made to the Iowa State Bar Foundation, a 501C3 corporation.
Forms for making donations of materials or money can be accessed here.
In addition to serving as a clearing house for those needing assistance and those wishing to provide assistance, the website lists a host of resources for displaced attorneys. Among those resources are temporary e-mail and fax solutions, and the ISBA-endorsed offsite backup system for electronic files. Other resources center primarily on publications that contain information on such topics as salvaging wet books and files, rebuilding the practice and disaster recovery.
Additional items will be added to the website as the need arises and as they become available.
The Linn County Bar Association presents the information on this web site as a service to our members and other Internet users. The information on this site is about legal issues, not legal advice. Due to the rapidly changing nature of the law and our reliance on information provided by outside sources, we make no warranty or guarantee concerning the accuracy or the reliability of the content at this site or at other sites which we link.
