Slip & Fall Lawyer in Iowa

Iowa's statute of limitations for premises liability claims is two years from the date of injury under Iowa Code § 614.1(2). Iowa abolished the invitee/licensee distinction in Koenig v. Koenig (766 N.W.2d 635, Iowa 2009) and replaced it with a unified reasonable-care standard for all lawful visitors. The trespasser distinction is retained. This means the analysis is no longer 'were you a customer or a social guest?' — it is 'was the owner's conduct reasonable under all the circumstances, applying the seven Koenig factors?'

The seven Koenig factors are: (1) the foreseeability of harm to the plaintiff; (2) the closeness of the connection between the defendant's conduct and the injury; (3) the moral blame attached to the defendant's conduct; (4) the policy of preventing future harm; (5) the extent of the burden to the defendant and consequences to the community of imposing a duty to exercise care with resulting liability for breach; (6) the availability, cost, and prevalence of insurance for the risk involved; and (7) the nature of the relationship between the parties. No single factor is dispositive — the analysis is holistic and fact-intensive. This makes Iowa premises liability claims harder to resolve on summary judgment than in traditional-framework states.

Iowa's open-and-obvious doctrine is not an absolute bar after Koenig. The possessor has no duty to warn of obvious dangers but may still have a duty to take protective measures depending on the Koenig factors — particularly foreseeability and the burden of remediation. This is more nuanced than Oklahoma (where open-and-obvious eliminates duty entirely) and similar to Wisconsin (where open-and-obvious goes to comparative fault). Under Iowa's 51% bar (§ 668.3(1)(a)), the jury weighs the obviousness of the hazard as part of the overall fault allocation.

Iowa follows the continuing storm doctrine for snow and ice: the property owner has no duty to remove snow or ice while a storm is in progress. The duty begins after the storm ends plus a reasonable time for remediation. Exceptions include melt-and-refreeze conditions, human-created hazards, and prolonged neglect. Iowa Code § 364.12(b) imposes a separate duty on property owners to clear sidewalks. For government property claims: state entities require a written claim with the Director of the Department of Management within two years under § 669.13(1), followed by 6 months to file suit. Municipal claims have a two-year SOL under § 670.5 with no pre-suit notice requirement.