Rule 1.423.Limited representation pleadings and papers

Rule 1.423 addresses what happens when a lawyer helps a self-represented party draft a pleading without agreeing to handle the whole case — the kind of limited-scope arrangement authorized under Iowa's professional conduct rules. Any pleading or paper prepared with that kind of drafting assistance must say so, in a statement before the signature line. The attorney has to advise the client that the statement is required, and the paper must include the attorney's name, personal identification number, address, phone number, and fax number if available, without the attorney signing it. If the help came through a nonprofit legal-services organization or a volunteer or court-annexed program, the program's contact information can appear instead of the individual attorney's own business address and phone number.

The rule also spells out what the drafting attorney owes the process even while staying in the background. The attorney must determine, to the best of their knowledge and after reasonable inquiry, that the pleading is grounded in fact and warranted by existing law or a good-faith argument to change it, and that it isn't filed to harass, delay, or run up costs. The attorney can rely on the client's own account of the facts, unless there's reason to think that account is false or materially incomplete — in which case the attorney has to make an independent, reasonable inquiry before helping draft the paper.

Importantly, none of this makes the drafting attorney counsel of record. Identifying an attorney who provided this kind of assistance is not an entry of appearance, and it doesn't authorize service on that attorney or entitle the attorney to be served the way an appearing lawyer would be under Rule 1.442.