Iowa Code § 96.17

This is the official text of Iowa Code § 96.17, part of Iowa’s Code — part of the compiled statutory law of Iowa, published by the state as "Code." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

Counsel.

Official statutory text

(1) In any civil action to enforce the provisions of this chapter, the department and the state may be represented by any qualified attorney who is a regular salaried employee of the department and is designated by it for this purpose or, at the department’s request, by the attorney general. In case the governor designates special counsel to defend on behalf of the state, the validity of this chapter, the expenses and compensation of such special counsel employed by the department in connection with such proceeding may be charged to the unemployment compensation administration fund.

(2) All criminal actions for violations of any provision of this chapter, or of any rules issued by the department pursuant thereto, shall be prosecuted by the prosecuting attorney of any county in which the employer has a place of business or the violator resides, or, at the request of the department, shall be prosecuted by the attorney general.

(3) Any member of the department or any employee of the department shall be indemnified for any damages and legal expenses incurred as a result of the good faith performance of their official duties, for any claim for civil damages not specifically covered by the Iowa tort claims Act, chapter 669. Any payment described herein shall be paid from the special employment security contingency fund in section 96.13, subsection 3.

[C39, §1551.23; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §96.17]96 Acts, ch 1186, §23; 2007 Acts, ch 22, §29

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

Need a lawyer in Iowa?

Find a Iowa lawyer
About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.