A bill for an act relating to civil liability of sports officials, providing criminal penalties for assault of sports officials, and including effective date and applicability provisions.

This Iowa bill (SF 50) protects sports officials from civil lawsuits for actions taken while officiating games, such as refereeing or umpiring, unless their conduct was intentional, malicious, or extremely careless. It also increases penalties for assaulting sports officials: knowingly causing serious injury during an assault is now a class D felony, while other assaults against officials become serious misdemeanors. The law defines "sports official" as referees, umpires, or similar personnel registered with governing organizations. This applies immediately to all cases filed after enactment, including those involving incidents that occurred before the law took effect.