Searching Public Records Effectively - Part 1

Public Records are your first line of defense in business. The information available in the real estate and court records can tell you plenty about the person or company you are contemplating doing business with.

Unfortunately, there are those who would take advantage of unsuspecting parties in real estate transactions and those who order products or services with no intention to pay. The former is fraud and the latter is theft but to pursue your legal remedy through litigation can be very expensive and time consuming.

Therefore, it is important to protect yourself before someone takes advantage of you.

Many businesses protect themselves through credit checks (dated if over 30 days old) or criminal background checks. These are important precautions but relying on a third party's investigation may be risky. Since most major counties now have public records online it is advisable to do your own checking also.

Before discussing what records to check it's important to undertand the types of public records and where they are found in the courthouse:

County Clerk's (Recorder's) Office:

Real Property Records (Grantor / Grantee Indexes) - Deeds, Mortgages, Internal Revenue Liens, State Tax Liens, Abstracts of Judgment, Powers of Attorney, Hospital Liens, Child Support Liens, Labor Liens, Mechanic's and Materialmen's Liens, Releases, Assignments, Lis Pendens and Affidavits. Click for a complete list of [Abbreviations] [Definitions]

Probate Records - Administrations, Wills, Inventories and Orders Entering Wills to Probate

County Courts at Law - certain claims with with dollar amounts up to $10,000 may be litigated in the County and typically, in Texas, Condemnation cases are handled in the County Court at Law.

District Clerk's Office

District Court a/k/a Superior Court - Law Suits, Divorces, Name Changes, Damage Claims, Tax Suits and most other actions requiring litigation between the parties.

Small Claims Court - these courts handle disputes involving dollar amounts less than $5,000.

What records should we check? It depends on what we are trying to find...

• Ownership of Property
• Descriptions of Land
• IRS & State Tax Liens against an individual or company
• Hospital Liens, Child Support Liens, Community Association Liens, etc...
• Judgments or Lawsuits in which your Party is the Judgment Debtor
• Ownerships of Companies or Corporations
• Real and Personal Property Taxes and Taxpayers
• Current and past Litigation
• Recorded Deed Restrictions and Subdivison Plats
• Condominium Declarations and Covenants
• Easements and Rights of Way

Most of the information listed above can be found in the Real Property Records of the County Clerk's office, in many areas of the country this is known as the "Recorders" Office.

Ownership of Property - the steps to to determine the ownership of land are as follows:

1. Check Tax Records for Taxpayer's Names
2. Research Real Property Record Grantor / Grantee Index
3. Read carefully the Vesting Deeds or other Documents

First find out who is paying taxes on the property. You may need an address, a Tax I. D. Number or a Legal Description to get started. Tax information is available from the Assessor's Office and/or the County Appraisal District. If you know who is paying taxes then 80%-90% of the time this is the owner of the property.

After finding who the taxpayer, search the names in the Grantor / Grantee Index for the County. The Seller is typically the Grantor and the Buyer is typically the Grantee in a Deed. After finding the deed then run the Buyer's name (as specified in the Deed) in the Grantor Index to see if the property has been subsequently sold. If the property has not been sold then you can reasonably conclude that the Grantees on Deed you found are still the owners.

The language in a Deed that designates the conveyence of property are, "Grant, Sell and Convey". If this language does not exist in the instrument then it is unlikely the property is being conveyed. It is important to read the documents very carefully or seek advise from an attorney or someone skilled at title research.

For Step by Step instructions of how to research property ownership [Click Here]

Descriptions of Land - if you are filing a lien claim or want to convey a parcel of property then you need an accurate legal description of the land. This discussion is Texas-speak. In many states property is described as being out of a"Township & Range" which we will discuss in another post.

Real Property is found in a "Recorded (Platted) Subdivision" or out of a "Survey" or "Abstract".

1. Recorded Subdivisions - when an area of land is platted or subdivided in a "recorded" subdivision in the County Clerk's office the the dimension of the land are defined by the recorded plat. Therefore, a property can be sold by refering to a Subdivision, Lot, Block and recordation of the plat in Clerk's office in lieu of a metes and bounds description.
2. Metes and Bounds Descriptions - if a property is not within a recorded subdivision then the property is described by metes and bounds out a Survey or Abstract. The Survey name is the name the original Patentee by the State and the Abstract Number identifies the survey in the County. Sometimes survey names are repeated in a county but each survey is identified by its own unique Abstract number. Licensed Land Title Surveyors are the only ones qualified to prepare proper legal descriptions which are based upon monumentation found on the ground. Once the Surveyor writes the legal description then this is provided to the attorney drafting the Deed or conveyance document.

Coming Up - Part 2 - How to Research Adverse Liens and Abstracts of Judgment

Open Government Training & Information from AG

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has an excellent website for Open Records and Open Government at [website].

The State of Texas serves a model for Open Government and this website includes:

• Open Government Laws
• Open Records Decisions
• Open Records Letter Rulings
• Open Records Report Biennial Update

In addition, effective January 1, 2006, elected and appointed public officials are required by a new state law to receive training in Texas open government laws. The Office of the Attorney General offers free video training courses, which were developed in compliance with a mandate from the 79th Texas Legislature that the Attorney General establish the formal training necessary to ensure that all elected and appointed government officials have a good command of both open records and open meetings laws.

This Web site contains links and information designed to assist public officials and public information coordinators in complying with the open government training requirement and Texas open government laws.

Even if you are not a government official the videos are worth watching. [Open Governement Training]

The definitive text, on open meetings titled the Open Meetings Act Handbook and the Public Information Act Handbook can be found at this site.

Another great tool for those requesting Public Records can be found at, "What Requestors Should Know" page.

FOIFT State Conference

Last Friday, we attended the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas "FOIFT" annual State Conference. Discussions focused on:

• Public records on the Internet
• Privacy issues and public records
• Legislative issues concering public records and open meetings
• Steps to obtain access to public records
• Privatization of public records

The stated purpose of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas is to encourage, sponsor and facilitate a greater appreciation, knowledge and understanding of the First Amendment. Working to ensure that the public's business is conducted in public, the FOIFT has successfully helped citizens access open meetings and documents that should be a matter of public record.

The keynote speaker, U.S. Senator John Cornyn, spoke of his efforts to implement at a national level some of the things he advanced as the former Attorney General in Texas. Senator Cornyn said there is a culture in Washington that believes information is power and the release of information may constitute a loss of power.

The Senator said whether it is a Republican or Democratic administration it is important to err on the side of openess. Sometimes labels such as, "Secret"or "Sensitive" are used to keep embarrassing or unflattering information from citizens improperly. He emphasized, in these times, it it important to protect certain information from our enemies but he acknowledged there are abuses in the name of national security which sometimes takes place.

Sen. Cornyn said his is working closely with fellow Juduciary Committee member Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy to streamline access to public records.

The first working session of the day was titled, "Public Records and the Internet: Oil and Water?" panelists included Cynthia Figueroa-Calhoun, County Clerk of Dallas County and Dianne Wilson, Ph.D., County Clerk of Fort Bend County. Also on the panel were Hadassah Schloss, Cost Rules Administrator, Office of the Attorney General of Texas and Gary Chapman, Director of the 21st Century Project, University of Texas at Austin.

The County Clerks spoke of the benefits consumers and businesses enjoy because of access to public records. Ms. Calhoun said access to public records has streamlined commerce, helped speed real estate transactions and has been a tremendouse benefit to attorneys and others using online public records in Dallas County.

The County Clerks expressed concerns that some privacy advocates, which Gary Chapman spoke in favor, might convince the legistlature and other governmental bodies to prohibit public records from being made available online and in doing so might have a negetive impact on commerce and the citizens ability to access inforamation when they need it.

Another issue the Clerk's discussed is "redaction" or the editing or revising a documents to black out Social Security Numbers or other information. The question remained, should Clerks redact records which makes it harder (but perhaps not impossible) to access; and, will the next step be for other parts of documents be redacted such as addresses and signatures?

The Clerks in attendence are generally advocates of open records but there was a realization that because there are 254 counties in Texas that means 254 opinions. Hadassah Schloss whose job is to help enforce the Open Records Act for the AG's office indicated it is a challenge to educate all public officials and their vendors of the laws regulating public records but progress is being made in that regard.

Following this session, the luncheon guest speaker was Attorney General, Greg Abbott. General Abbott spoke about the efforts his office has made to keep records and meetings open to the public. General Abbott spoke specifically of lawsuits his office have untaken and currently pursuing.

As someone who has worked closely the staff of the Attorneys General office, I can state without hesitation that Greg Abbott's office has been consistant and diligent in their efforts to educate and encourage county officials to follow the Open Records Act. The AG's office is committed to pursuing all legal remedies to make sure that's done. General Abbott confirmed in his remarks that his office will take all steps neccessary to make records available to the public.

During the luncheon in a questions to General Abbott I pointed out that the problem many of us face is the "Privatization of Public Records" and asked, "What can we do to stop the delay by governmental officials who use the excuse that the records are with the Vendor and they do not have the technical ability to provide the records?"

General Abbott indicated this type of activity will not be tolerated by his office and suggested that we may need to do something legistlatively to make these Clerks and vendors more responsive.

The first afternoon session, "Legislative Issues: The Public's Agenda" addressed specifically what the Legislature can do to promote more openess in government. Much of the discussion focused on the practice of "voice votes" in the Texas House of Representatives in which lawmakers are not accountable for their votes because they are not recorded.

The final session titled "Friends on the Frontline" included a historian, Dr. Don Carleton, a librarian, Cathy Hartman, an attorney, Joe Larson and Greg Simpson, Chief of Open Records Division of the Attorney Generals' office.

Dr. Carleton was concerned about the indifference or complacency on the part of the public in standing up for their rights and being more involved in Public Record and Open Record issues. He said that sometimes because things are in digital format the originals are discarded which may make it difficult as a historian to reconstruct the past particularly because electronic data can be altered if not properly preserved.

Ms. Hartman spoke of the the concerns she has when federal government officials inquire through National Security "demand letters" to know what books are being read by who. She questioned whether or not it is right for the government to know what we read and how easily a librarian should release this kind of information.

Joe Larsen with Ogden, Gibson, Broocks & Longoria, LLP was asked what makes him the maddest about what he sees in his practice dealing with open records and apparently he had a long list but high on the list was the privitization of records when public officical hire outside contractors.

Mr. Simpson, again voiced his and the AG offices' willingness to prosecute violations of the Open Records Act in Texas.

Most of the members of the FOIFT are jounalists so there was a fair amount of discussion about the most recent attempts by the federal government to limit freedoms of the press.

The 2006 James Madison Awards recipents were Craig Flournoy, Dan Malone and Gail Reeves.

A good day was had by all those attending. It is refreshing to know that there are people working every day to keep our government as tranparent as possible.

If you are interested Open Records or the want to have a voice in the issues the Freedom of Information Foundations covers then you can make a Donation or become a Member at whatever level you feel is appropriate.