Date: 11-15-2001

Case Style: Explore Information Services, a Division of Ram Center, Inc. vs. The Iowa Court Information System, The

Plaintiff's Attorney: James Carney, Des Moines

Defendant's Attorney: Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Pamela Griebel, Assistant Attorney General, and David Ferree, Special Assistant Attorney General

Description: Explore Information Services appeals from a district court ruling on its application for adjudication of law points and its motion to reconsider pursuant to Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 179(b). Because we conclude the rule 179(b) motion was not an appropriate challenge to the adjudication of law points ruling, Explore's filing of the rule 179(b) motion did not toll the time for appeal. The time for appeal expired long before the rule 179(b) ruling, resulting in an untimely appeal. We therefore must dismiss the appeal.

Explore Information Services (Explore), a division of RAM Center, Inc., is a Minnesota corporation. Since 1992, Explore has provided insurance companies with information related to convictions for driving violations in fifteen states. Insurance companies use this information to determine whether they should issue or renew policies.

Before 1995, Explore employees would take laptop computers to the clerk's offices in the ninety-nine Iowa county courthouses, look up the actual citations given to drivers, and enter into their computers data on adjudicated citations. The open records law gave Explore's employees free access to the records.

In 1995, Explore began receiving driving conviction information electronically from each county's district court clerk, via the Iowa Court Information System (ICIS). According to Explore, it and ICIS entered into an "agreement" whereby ICIS would provide the compiled conviction data from all Iowa counties once a month in an electronic format, charging a fee of $100 to $200 per month.

Iowa Code section 321.491 requires district court clerks to create abstracts of driving convictions and forfeitures of bail and forward the records to the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) within ten days after the conviction or forfeiture of bail. Iowa Code § 321.491 (1997). A 1994 amendment to section 321.491 authorized clerks to create and forward the information in electronic format. 1994 Iowa Acts ch. 1074, § 2. Before 1997, section 321.491 did not impose a fee on public requests for copies of driving conviction records. But once the records were forwarded to the IDOT, that agency charged fifty cents per record. Iowa Code § 321.10 (1997) (authorizing the IDOT to provide upon request a certified copy of any record of the department, charging a fee of fifty cents per document).

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Click the case caption above for the full text of the Court's opinion.

Outcome: Because the rule 179(b) motion was not an appropriate challenge to the district court's adjudication-of-law-points ruling, Explore's filing of the rule 179(b) motion did not toll the time for appeal. For this reason, the appeal was untimely and we must therefore dismiss it. Appeal Dismissed.

Plaintiff's Experts: Unknown

Defendant's Experts: Unknown

Comments: C.L.