A bill for an act creating a specialty business court, and including effective date provisions.
Senate File 639 establishes a new specialty business court in Iowa, managed by the Supreme Court, to resolve complex commercial and business litigation expeditiously. This court will have concurrent jurisdiction with district courts over specific types of cases, such as those involving intellectual property licensing, internal business entity disputes, breach of contract between businesses, and trade secrets, generally requiring alleged damages of $500,000 or more or seeking injunctive relief. The bill outlines the appointment of dedicated judges, procedures for case filing and transfer, and appellate processes for the new court.
Bill status
signed
all 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Apr 2025
Committee Review
Apr 2026
Senate Passage
May 2026
House Passage
May 2026
Signed into Law
Jun 2026
Introduced Apr 22, 2025
Signed Jun 1, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons
What changed between versions
Enrolled
→
Enrolled with Governor's Action
·
2 edits
·
May 18, 2026
MINOR
The bill text was converted from a vertical, line-by-line format to a standard paragraph format for readability. The substantive legal content, including the creation of a new specialty business court, jurisdictional thresholds, and judge assignments, remains unchanged. A minor formatting adjustment was made to the reporting requirements, changing the description of the required report from a detailed accounting of costs to a side-by-side comparison of case resolution times.
TECHNICAL
The document layout was changed from a vertical list of words to standard paragraph text, improving readability without altering the law.
REQUIREMENT
The reporting requirement for the judicial branch was slightly rephrased to emphasize a side-by-side comparison of case resolution times rather than a detailed accounting of personnel costs.
Floor votes · Senate Apr 28, 2025
How they voted
49–0
Passed
Total votes 49
Apr 28, 2025
D
Democratic16
100% Yea
R
Republican33
100% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea
All Nay
Mixed
No data
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
28
Key actions
13
Committee
6
Amendments
6
Jun 1, 2026
Signed into law
Signed by Governor.
upper
May 2, 2026
Upper · Passed
Passed Senate, yeas 38, nays 8.
upper
May 2, 2026
Upper · Passed
Senate concurred with S-5255.
upper
May 2, 2026
Introduced
Message from House, with amendment S-5255.
upper
May 2, 2026
Lower · Passed
Passed House, yeas 79, nays 6.
lower
May 2, 2026
Lower · Passed
Amendment H-8447 adopted.
lower
May 2, 2026
Introduced
Amendment H-8456, yeas 8, nays 77, lost.
lower
May 2, 2026
Lower · Passed
Amendment H-8440 adopted.
lower
May 1, 2026
Introduced
Amendment H-8456 filed.
lower
Apr 30, 2026
Introduced
Amendments H-8440 and H-8447 filed.
lower
Apr 21, 2026
Lower · Passed
Committee vote: Yeas, 18. Nays, 6. Excused, 1.
lower
Apr 21, 2026
Lower · Passed
Committee report, recommending passage.
lower
Feb 4, 2026
Legislature · Passed
Subcommittee recommends passage.
legislature
Feb 2, 2026
Legislature · Passed
Subcommittee Meeting: 02/04/2026 12:15PM RM 102.
legislature
Jan 29, 2026
Lower · Passed
Subcommittee: Nordman, Lundgren and Wilson.
lower
Apr 28, 2025
Upper · Passed
Passed Senate, yeas 50, nays 0.
upper
Apr 22, 2025
Upper · Passed
Committee report, approving bill.
upper
Apr 22, 2025
Introduced
Introduced, placed on Ways and Means calendar.
upper
0 primary · 0 co-sponsors
Sponsors
No sponsor information available.
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