Iowa agrees to speed up access to civil court cases as part of lawsuit settlement

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The state of Iowa will provide “contemporaneous” access to newly filed civil court cases to settle a lawsuit that accused the state of violating the First Amendment by delaying access to those filings. The Des Moines Register reports that the newspaper publishing company Lee Enterprises, based in Davenport, Iowa, and Courthouse News sued the state’s court administrator in May, seeking quicker access to newly filed lawsuits. On Wednesday, parties in the lawsuit notified the court of a settlement. The settlement calls Iowa’s judicial branch to create a new access option to see civil petitions even before official processing is complete. It may take up to a month to get the new system up and running.