Iowa Law Blog : Iowa Lawyer & Attorney : Sullivan & Ward Law Firm : Iowa Law Blog

As reported on August 25, 2009 by Andy Staples on SportsIllustrated.com, SI.com is issuing open records requests to the 51 public school bowl championship subdivision football coaches who cast votes for the weekly coaches poll in NCAA football.  The coaches poll carries 33% weight in the determination of which schools are eligible to compete in the BCS national championship game, and other high-paying bowl games.  Staples argues that since football coaches at public universities are public employees, all records-including their votes-are subject to the open records laws of their specific states. 

 

Neither Kirk Ferentz or Paul Rhoads are voting in the coaches this year (2009), but if they were, an interested person could make an open records request under Iowa Code Chapter 22.  Whether such requests by SI.com are successful remains to be seen, but Iowa's law in particular seems to favor the interested person under these circumstances.

 

What is clear, however, is that this author is excited for the approaching college football season.  Stay tuned for any other excuses to write about the divergence of college football and the law. 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

Robert M. "Bob" Holliday was recently awarded the Rolland Grefe Pro Bono Publico Award for his efforts to have the life sentence of Reed Prior commuted.  Mr. Prior's sentence was commuted by President George W. Bush on December 23, 2008 approximately seven years after Bob began working on his case.  Bob received the Award on June 24, 2009 at the President's Awards Banquet during The Iowa State Bar Association's Annual Meeting.  Congratulations, Bob! 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

The Iowa Court of Appeals recently issued a ruling that should be a reminder to those trying to sell a house in Iowa. The evidence presented at trial indicated that the seller of a home had previous history of water standing on the lawn after rains. The seller had provided a seller's disclosure statement, pursuant to Iowa law, which requires a potential seller to list and disclose any potential problems, including "physical problems such as: settling, flooding, drainage, or grading problems" but failed to indicate the standing water problem. The Court indicated that the standard is not whether the seller believes that a characteristic is a problem, but whether the grading/drainage is a condition and important characteristic of the property. Accordingly, the Court found that the seller improperly failed to disclose the condition of the property to the buyer. For anyone looking to sell their property on their own, this is a reinforced reminder to disclose anything and everything to a potential buyer. Whether the seller believes that it is a problem does not matter. My advice to any of my clients selling property is to do disclose everything. Being subject to a lawsuit from a disgruntled purchaser is not a pleasant experience to go through. The safer course of action is to disclose any potential important conditions of the property so that a buyer is put on notice.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks