Rule 1.415 Judicial notice; statutes

When you file legal paperwork in Iowa, you don't have to explain or quote Iowa laws that the court already knows about. Courts automatically recognize their own state's laws, so there's no need to spell them out in detail.

But if your case involves a law from a different state, U.S. territory, or another part of the country, you need to specifically point to that law in your paperwork. Just name it clearly, like citing the specific statute number and where it comes from. Once you do that, the Iowa court will accept and apply that outside law without you having to prove it exists or explain what it says in detail. This saves time and paperwork, since you won't need to bring in extra evidence to convince the court that the other state's law is real and says what you claim it says.