1. Not less than five and not more than fifteen days after commencing a proceeding and
upon notice to the other party, a hearing shall be held at which the plaintiff must prove the
allegation of domestic abuse by a preponderance of the evidence.
2. The court may enter any temporary order it deems necessary to protect the plaintiff
from domestic abuse prior to the hearing, including temporary custody or visitation orders
pursuant to subsection 3, upon good cause shown in an ex parte proceeding. Present danger
of domestic abuse to the plaintiff constitutes good cause for purposes of this subsection. A
temporary order issued pursuant to this subsection shall specifically include notice that the
person may be required to relinquish all firearms, offensive weapons, and ammunition upon
the issuance of a permanent order pursuant to section 236.5.
3. The court may award temporary custody of or establish temporary visitation rights with
regard to children under eighteen years of age. In awarding temporary custody or temporary
visitation rights, the court shall give primary consideration to the safety of the alleged victim
and the children. If the court finds that the safety of the alleged victim or the children will
be jeopardized by unsupervised or unrestricted visitation, the court shall set conditions or
restrict visitation as to time, place, duration, or supervision, or deny visitation entirely, as
needed to guard the safety of the victim and the children. The court shall also determine
whether any other existing orders awarding custody or visitation should be modified.
4. The court may include in the temporary order issued pursuant to this section a grant to
the petitioner of the exclusive care, possession, or control of any pets or companion animals
owned, possessed, leased, kept, or held by the petitioner, respondent, or minor child of the
petitioner or respondent whose welfare may be affected by the controversy. The court may
\n
Tue Dec 09 22:20:44 2025 Iowa Code 2026, Chapter 236 (31, 0)
§236.4, DOMESTIC ABUSE 4\n\nforbid the respondent from approaching, taking, transferring, encumbering, concealing,
molesting, attacking, striking, threatening, harming, or otherwise disposing of the pet or
companion animal. This subsection shall not apply to livestock as defined in section 717.1,
held solely or primarily for commercial purposes.
5. If a hearing is continued, the court may make or extend any temporary order under
subsection 2, 3, or 4 that it deems necessary.
6. Upon application of a party, the court shall issue subpoenas requiring attendance and
testimony of witnesses and production of papers.
7. The court shall advise the defendant of a right to be represented by counsel of the
defendant’s choosing and to have a continuance to secure counsel.
8. Prior to the entry of a temporary order under this section that involves a child-custody
determination as defined in section 598B.102, the plaintiff shall furnish information to the
court in compliance with section 598B.209.
9. Hearings shall be recorded.
[C81, §236.4]
93 Acts, ch 157, §3; 2010 Acts, ch 1083, §1; 2010 Acts, ch 1159, §1 – 4; 2014 Acts, ch 1098,
§2, 3
Referred to in §232.8, 236.6, 915.50
\n
Notes of Decisions
Cited in
50
cases (
14 in the last 5 years), 1994–2026 · leading case:
Bartsch v. Bartsch, 636 N.W.2d 3 (Iowa 2001).
Bartsch v. Bartsch, 636 N.W.2d 3 (Iowa 2001).
· cites it 4× “See Iowa Code § 236.4 . By that time, Nathan says he had moved to Colorado, where he was served with notice of Tara's application for a protective order.”
Teri Root v. Talton Toney, 841 N.W.2d 83 (Iowa 2013).
· cites it 3× “Section 236.4 provides for expedited orders of protection.”
State v. Wiederien, 709 N.W.2d 538 (Iowa 2006).
· cites it 2× “§ 236.4(1) (imposing preponderance-of-evidence standard in domestic abuse proceedings where relief includes protective orders); Kennedy v.”
Knight v. Knight, 525 N.W.2d 841 (Iowa 1994).
· cites it 2× “” Iowa Code § 236.4 (1). We recently described the framework of domestic abuse proceedings in Smith v.”
Conklin v. Conklin, 586 N.W.2d 703 (Iowa 1998).
· cites it 2× “See Iowa Code § 236.4 . The day before the scheduled hearing, Michael filed a petition for dissolution of marriage.”
Molly Arlene Dayton v. Paul Anthony Asberry (Iowa Ct. App. 2019).
· cites it 8× “Iowa Code § 236.4 (1). Asberry’s assumption that the rescheduling order was mailed to the address of the home he shared with Dayton is a reasonable one.”
Heather Brooke Almeida n/k/a Heather Bertroche v. David John Wilcox Almeida (Iowa Ct. App. 2019).
· cites it 6× “1 He complains: (1) the final protective order was improperly entered without any findings of fact or conclusions of law, (2) a hearing was not held within the timeframe provided in section 236.4(1) of the code, (3) there was an alleged agreement between the parties to dismiss…”
Stevie Nowell v. Billie Nowell (Iowa Ct. App. 2016).
· cites it 5× “See Iowa Code §§ 236.4 (1), .5. Second, chapter 236 places an affirmative duty on the district court to “advise the defendant of a right to be represented by counsel of the defendant’s choosing and to have a continuance to secure counsel.”
Dawn Marie Clemens v. James Walter Clemens (Iowa Ct. App. 2016).
· cites it 4× “See Iowa Code § 236.4 (1) (2015). This is not a circumstance where the district court imposed arbitrary or inflexible time limits.”
Bruske v. Bruske (Iowa Ct. App. 2017).
· cites it 4× “” Iowa Code § 236.4 (1). “A preponderance of the evidence is the lowest degree of proof upon which issues of fact are determined .”
Desiree Nicole Benda v. Travis James Streif (Iowa Ct. App. 2021).
· cites it 4× “” Iowa Code § 236.4 (1). “The quantity of evidence required of a party having the burden of proof in a civil action is ‘no more than will outweigh the evidence of the other side.”
Mara Rae Budweg v. Nathaniel Ray McCory (Iowa Ct. App. 2022).
· cites it 4× “See Iowa Code § 236.4 (2) (2021). At that hearing, Mara acknowledged Nathaniel had never “physically assaulted” her, but she testified he had “made some threatening texts or calls.”
— Iowa Code § 236.4(1) — 13 cases
State v. Wiederien, 709 N.W.2d 538 (Iowa 2006).
“§ 236.4(1) (imposing preponderance-of-evidence standard in domestic abuse proceedings where relief includes protective orders); Kennedy v.”
Molly Arlene Dayton v. Paul Anthony Asberry (Iowa Ct. App. 2019).
“Iowa Code § 236.4 (1). Asberry’s assumption that the rescheduling order was mailed to the address of the home he shared with Dayton is a reasonable one.”
Heather Brooke Almeida n/k/a Heather Bertroche v. David John Wilcox Almeida (Iowa Ct. App. 2019).
“1 He complains: (1) the final protective order was improperly entered without any findings of fact or conclusions of law, (2) a hearing was not held within the timeframe provided in section 236.4(1) of the code, (3) there was an alleged agreement between the parties to dismiss…”
— Iowa Code § 236.4(2) — 2 cases
Bruske v. Bruske (Iowa Ct. App. 2017).
“” Iowa Code § 236.4 (1). “A preponderance of the evidence is the lowest degree of proof upon which issues of fact are determined .”
— Iowa Code § 236.4(7) — 1 case
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.