It isn’t “cheating” to let your searcher know that you are expecting certain records to turn up. Any party or lien information you can provide at the outset of the project will greatly improve the quality of your final results. Public records research is not an exact science; filing office records are idiosyncratic and abstracting pertinent information from the index can require some finesse.

Typographical errors occur, filings get indexed incorrectly, and subsequent filings get attached to the wrong original document. If a search does not yield the anticipated results, a well-informed searcher can take additional steps to locate the document and proactively work with the filing office to have the index corrected. Sending them back later to check for a missing lien will only add to your cycle time.

Your searcher wants to do a good job for you. By sharing what you already know, you arm him or her with the information they need to perform thorough research and investigate inconsistencies in the data on your behalf.

*Disclaimer

Here are a few common mistakes to watch for when filing UCC1 Financing Statements:

• Avoid “dba” notation for fictitious or assumed business names as debtor
• Failure to file under the debtor’s true and correct legal name
• Incorrect type of organization listed for business debtors
• Listing of a faulty or incomplete address for the Debtor or Secured Party
• Filing a document in the wrong jurisdiction
• Missing attachment pages

Rejected filings cost a Secured Party time and money, but the above listed errors can be much more dangerous because they would rarely cause a filing officer to reject a document. These mistakes often make it into the public record, only to be discovered during the course litigation.

To guard against damaging filing mistakes, consider working with a service provider that performs a thorough quality review of your documents prior to submission. A well-trained eye can catch many of these before it’s too late!

* Disclaimer