What the old rule said, on paper
Iowa's Municipal Tort Claims Act, in what is now Iowa Code § 670.5 (formerly numbered § 613A.5), reads as a genuinely distinctive, two-part structure. On its face, it says an injured person generally had to commence a lawsuit against a municipality within just six months — unless they first presented written notice stating the time, place, and circumstances of the injury to the municipality's governing body within 60 days. If that notice was given, the actual deadline to sue extended to two years from the date of the notice.
The part that was struck down
This special, notice-based limitation period has been held unconstitutional by Iowa courts. As one analysis of the current law puts it, "because the special notice-based limitation in Iowa Code § 670.5 is unconstitutional, Iowa Code chapter 614 supplies the applicable limitations period for all chapter 670 actions." In plain terms: the mechanism that could cut a municipal claim's deadline down to six months no longer controls.
What actually applies to a municipal claim today
Because of that ruling, claims against an Iowa municipality or its employees now generally run on the same two-year general personal injury deadline, under Iowa Code chapter 614, that applies to claims against anyone else — not the shorter notice-dependent structure the statute's text might otherwise suggest. This is a genuinely interesting example of a law staying on the books while the part of it that actually mattered, for timing purposes, has effectively been set aside by the courts.
Why early notice is still worth giving, even so
Even though the special shorter deadline no longer controls, claims against a municipality still arise under the broader Iowa Municipal Tort Claims Act framework, which can carry its own procedural considerations beyond pure timing. Given how specific and still-evolving this area of law has been, treating early written notice to the municipality as good practice, and confirming the current requirements with an attorney as soon as possible, remains the safest course — even where the old six-month trap itself no longer applies.
A genuinely similar story to another state
This isn't the only place a shorter government deadline has been struck down on constitutional grounds for treating government-caused and other injuries too differently without a sufficient reason; it's a pattern worth knowing about generally when researching how a specific state actually treats government claims today, rather than relying on how the statute reads at first glance.