Civil Process and Service

The Civil Division is responsible for serving various legal notices, including original notices, subpoenas, garnishments, writs, and court orders as well as conducting evictions and sheriff's sales.

The Civil Division in the last 5 years has averaged 1850 civil papers per year, roughly 5 per day.

PLEASE NOTE:                                                                                                                                                                                    Pursuant to the Iowa Court Rules (Rules of Civil Procedure), after serving a document with a court case number, the Return of Service will be sent to the appropriate Clerk of Court unless requested to do so differently.  If no court case number is indicated, the Return of Service will be sent to the person or firm who requested the service.

Before the Floyd County Sheriff's Office will serve any civil process papers, Directions to the Sheriff and the required advance fees must be received along with the documents you want served. Attorneys and financial institutions in Iowa can be billed, however documents will not be returned to the Clerk of Court until the sheriff's fees are paid.

Civil papers may be mailed or hand delivered to the Sheriff's Office

Regarding a garnishment, per Iowa Code, you must also give the Sheriff's Office the last known address of the defendant/s.         When garnishing bank accounts, please include the defendant's social security number, bank account number and/or tax ID number as the bank may not process the garnishment without this information.

Effective July 1, 2015, the judgement creditor is responsible for having the notice served on defendant for non-employment garnishment. This must be done within seven (7) days after sheriff's filing of answers.  The judgement creditor may opt to have the Sheriff's Office serve the notice but that must be directed or requested in the directions to the sheriff.   The notice will not be served by the Sheriff's Office automatically.

The Floyd County Sheriff's Office cannot give out legal advice.  It is advised to contact an attorney with any questions.

Directions for Service may be found here.