111 Iowa L. Rev. 859 (2026)
Abstract
For decades, Iowa courts have been acting as arbiters and resolving disputes between parents who share joint legal custody of their children. However, recently, when the Iowa Supreme Court decided In re Marriage of Frazier, the Court determined that in most cases district courts can no longer provide this remedy. Instead, when two parents present it with an impasse, the district court can only resolve that dispute by modifying their joint legal custody status and awarding one parent sole legal custody. Later, the Iowa Supreme Court decided Venechuk v. Landherr which limited the breadth of Fraizer and determined district courts could also resolve these impasses if the parties’ existing custody decree contained provisions for the court to modify that specifically involved the disputed legal custody issue. Fraizer (limited by Venechuk) has stirred up Iowa’s legal community and for good reason. Effectively, in most cases, it leaves Iowa families to fend for themselves when two parents simply cannot reach an agreement over important parental decisions. This Note argues that the Court’s analysis in Frazier is contradictory and incomplete and that the Frazier holding provides an inadequate remedy for joint legal custodians who reach an impasse. Further, because Iowa is the only state that requires its joint legal custodians to take such dramatic steps to resolve their disputes, the Iowa General Assembly should enact legislation that allows district courts to resolve these disputes without ever being required to terminate joint legal custody status. This legislation would align Iowa with the rest of the nation on this issue and give Iowa families an adequate remedy for resolving their legal custody disputes.