The Iowa military affidavit

How Iowa handles it

Iowa does not publish a document called a military affidavit. It publishes a three-jobs-in-one page, Small Claims Form 3.27, and the military certificate is the third job. The title says so: Verification of Account, Identification of Judgment Debtor, and Certificate Re Military Service. It is captioned "In the Iowa District Court for ______ County," takes a Small Claim number, and carries a separate line at the top right reading "For defendant: ______" with the instruction "(This form required for each Defendant.)"

Paragraph 1 is the account. The affiant states they are a party or an employee of the plaintiff, that they have personal knowledge that the attached statement is a true copy of the original creditor's records, gives the balance due and the date it was computed, and confirms that any interest is accurately stated in the petition or original notice. Paragraph 2 is the judgment-debtor identification: where the defendant resides, where the defendant is employed, and the defendant's occupation. That paragraph exists to make later garnishment work, and it sits directly above the military question.

Paragraph 3 is the certificate, and Iowa structures it as one choice among three. Box A says the defendant is not in military service and then requires you to check how you verified it, from three printed options: "Checking the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) (requires name and SSN or name and date of birth)", "Contacting Defendant who informed me," or "Regularly seeing Defendant." Box B says "I have investigated, and I am unable to determine whether or not Defendant is in the military service of the United States government." Box C says the defendant is in military service. Paragraph 4 then asks whether the defendant is under a disability or confined in a reformatory, jail, or penitentiary.

The reason the form does so much work is that Iowa's civil rules do none of it. Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.971 through 1.977, read on August 15, 2026, never mention military service. Rule 1.972(2) requires a written application to the clerk with a certification that a notice of intent to file it was given at least ten days beforehand, and Rule 1.973(1) lets the clerk enter judgment for a sum certain "upon affidavit that the amount is due." Rule 1.972(4) then removes the ten-day warning entirely for two case types: "Any case prosecuted under small claims procedure" and "Any forcible entry and detainer case, whether or not placed on the small claims docket." Those are the two dockets that generate the most military certificates in Iowa, and in both of them the defendant gets no advance notice that a default is coming.

What trips filers up here

• One form per defendant. The instruction is printed on the face of the page: "(This form required for each Defendant.)" A small claim against a married couple needs two completed copies, each naming its own defendant on the "For defendant" line.
• The third verification option carries a grammar error that survives in the current PDF: "Regularly seeing Defendant and believing Defendant is are not active in the U.S. military." It is the weakest of the three options in any event, and a court asked to rely on it alone is being asked to accept an impression.
• The military certificate is buried third in the title, so clerks, filers, and search engines all call this the verification of account. Searching an Iowa forms index for "military affidavit" will not surface it.
• Because the account balance and the military statement are certified in the same sentence, one penalty-of-perjury certification covers both. An overstated balance and a wrong military answer travel together on one signature.
• There is no checkbox confirming a Defense Manpower Data Center report is attached, only a box saying you checked the database. Attach the status report anyway and keep the search date close to the day judgment is requested.

Signing it: declaration, no notary

The closing line reads "I certify under penalty of perjury and pursuant to the laws of the State of Iowa that these facts are true and correct." No notary, no clerk. The form then takes two signatures: a handwritten "Signature of Affiant" on the left and an /s/ line for the "Filing Plaintiff or Attorney" on the right, plus phone number, email address, an additional email address if applicable, the law firm or entity for which the filing is made, and a mailing address.

No notary is needed. The signature block is an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury, which is what 50 U.S.C. § 3931(b)(4) expressly allows. Signing it knowing the military statement is false is still a federal crime, and a state perjury exposure on top.

Getting the military-status answer right

The affidavit is only as good as the search behind it. The Defense Manpower Data Center runs the free lookup that courts and creditors rely on, and since 2026 it requires a free account even for a single record. Our guide to the DMDC SCRA website covers the search itself, what a "no information found" result does and does not prove, and the batch route for high-volume filers. The federal rules behind this form, including what happens when you genuinely cannot determine status, sit on the hub page.

If one was filed against you

A false affidavit is not a technicality. In May 2026 the Justice Department settled with a Florida property manager that swore a Navy sailor was not on active duty, took a default eviction judgment, and left him with an eviction on his record that a dozen landlords then refused to rent around: $60,000 to one servicemember plus a civil penalty . If a default judgment was entered against you while you were serving, it can be reopened; the default-judgment shield walks the deadlines.

Serving in Iowa and looking for what the state adds to your own protections rather than court procedure? That is a different page: Iowa SCRA benefits.