Iowa Interactive Court Forms (IICF) for Small Claims Plaintiffs

What IICF Is and Why It Matters

Iowa Interactive Court Forms (IICF) is a free online tool provided by the Iowa Judicial Branch that generates completed court documents through a guided interview. Instead of downloading a blank PDF and guessing which fields to fill in, IICF asks you questions in plain English and produces a properly formatted form ready to file.

The small-claims IICF interview is for petitioners preparing to file a small-claims action. It does not prepare a defendant's Appearance and Answer (eForm 3.11) or counterclaim (Form 3.13). Those forms are available as fillable PDFs from the Iowa Judicial Branch.

How to Use IICF for a Small Claims Petition

The process takes 15 to 30 minutes, depending on how much detail your case requires:

1. Access IICF through the Iowa Judicial Branch self-help portal and select the small-claims interview.
2. Complete the interview. Answer the prompts with the information needed for your small-claims petition.
3. Review the generated petition. Check the names, amount, and claim details before filing.
4. Print, sign, and file it. Follow the Judicial Branch instructions to submit the petition through EDMS.

Preparing the petition in IICF does not file the case. The current small-claims filing fee is $115; service can cost extra.

What IICF Does Well

Correct formatting. The generated form matches the official Chapter 3 format that the clerk expects. No missing headers, no wrong case number format, no skipped fields.

Plain-language prompts. The interview translates legal terminology into straightforward questions. Instead of asking you to "state your affirmative defense," it asks what happened and why you disagree with the claim.

Petition preparation. The small-claims interview prepares a petition for a person starting a case. It does not generate defendant forms such as Form 3.11 (Appearance and Answer) or Form 3.13 (Counterclaim).

What IICF Does Not Do

It does not give legal advice. IICF tells you what to put where, not what to put there. The tool does not evaluate whether your defense is strong, whether you should file a counterclaim, or whether you should settle.

It does not file for you. IICF generates the document. You still need to upload it to EDMS or deliver it to the clerk. The filing step is separate.

It does not prepare your evidence. Organizing exhibits, formatting documents for the hearing, and deciding what evidence to bring are outside IICF's scope.

It does not file your petition. You must submit the generated petition through EDMS and pay the filing fee; completing the interview alone does not start the case.

IICF vs. Downloading the Blank Form

Both options let a petitioner prepare the required court form. The difference is the experience:

If you are comfortable with legal forms and know exactly what to write, the blank PDF is faster. If this is your first court filing, IICF reduces the chance of a formatting error that could delay acceptance.

After IICF: Filing in EDMS

Once IICF generates your petition, the next step is filing it through EDMS:

1. Create an EDMS eFile account on the Iowa Judicial Branch eFile portal (if you do not already have one).
2. Log in and start a new small-claims filing.
3. Follow EDMS's prompts for filing a small-claims petition.
4. Upload the PDF that IICF generated.
5. Submit and pay the filing fee. EDMS returns a Notice of Electronic Filing (NEF) confirming receipt.

Your small-claims case begins when the petition is filed with the clerk and the required filing fee is paid. IICF generation alone does not file the petition.

Defendants responding to an existing case should use the official eForm 3.11 and the Iowa Small Claims Response Guide.

See more Iowa guides →