Abstracting, leasehold research, mineral title reporting, curative support and division of interest analysis, from Lafayette, Louisiana. The record work behind an acquisition, a divestiture, a drilling unit or a payment deck, organized so the people who rely on it can find what they need.
Due diligence is where most of our work lives. Someone is buying, selling, drilling or paying on acreage, and they need to know what the record actually says before they do. The five services on this page are the pieces of that answer. Some jobs need one of them; a closing or a new unit usually needs several, and they are built to fit together.
The firm is led by a fourth-generation landman, with over 60 years of combined experience on the leadership team, and works from courthouse books, online indices and the field. Everything is delivered as an organized, modern file set rather than a stack of copies.
Each one stands on its own. A closing, a new unit or a payment deck usually needs several, and the work is organized so one feeds the next.
A chronological run of every instrument affecting a tract, from a starting point you set (the sovereign, a prior examination, or a fixed look-back) to the present. Each entry is indexed and copied so an examiner can follow the chain without going back to the books.
Which leases cover the acreage, who holds them, what they say, and whether they are still in force. Lease status work for a buyer, a lessee checking its own position, or an operator deciding what still needs to be leased.
A landman-prepared report of mineral ownership on a tract or a unit: who owns the minerals, in what fractions, under what leases, with the instruments that support each line. It reports the record and draws no legal conclusions, and it is built so an attorney can examine from it.
The requirements an examination turns up still have to be cleared. We identify the missing instruments, locate the parties, and prepare or obtain what the record needs, working with your attorney on anything that calls for legal judgment.
The ownership decimals behind a payment deck or a unit. We take the title work and the unit or lease terms and produce a division of interest you can set up a deck from, including unleased mineral owner evaluation where a unit has them.
Every due diligence job scopes differently, so there is no standard timeline. These are the variables that set the size of the work. Send what you know and we will scope it.
A single tract, a unit, or a package with many leases and units, and whether you are buying, selling, drilling or paying.
Sovereign to present, a prior examination forward, or a defined look-back.
Online indices with images, online indices only, or books in the clerk's office. Older and rural records take longer.
Prior runsheets, reports or abstracts in the data room shorten the job. Send them.
The number of leases to run and the unit orders to reconcile set the size of the leasehold and DOI work.
A closing date or a unit hearing sets the order of work and what gets delivered first.
A finished due diligence engagement typically includes some or all of:
Per tract, indexed, with instrument copies.
Ownership by tract with fractions, supporting instruments and a requirements list.
Every lease of record on the acreage, with status and open interests.
What needs clearing, who has to sign, and where it stands.
Decimals by tract and unit, ready for deck setup.
Everything indexed and delivered as one package your attorney, land department or buyer can work from.
You send the tract or unit list, the deadline, the deal context and any existing title work. We confirm which of the five services the job needs.
Runsheets built from conveyance, mortgage, probate and civil records, online and at the courthouse, plus state agency filings.
Ownership, leasehold status and requirements written up per tract, with the instruments behind each line.
Requirements worked to resolution with your attorney where legal judgment is needed.
Decimals built from the cleared title and the unit or lease terms.
One organized package, with a status report of what is clear and what is still open.
Louisiana title does not read like title in a common-law state. Conveyance and mortgage records are kept by each parish clerk of court. Mineral rights are a servitude, not a separate estate, and a servitude prescribes after ten years of nonuse, so a mineral ownership report has to track creation dates, uses and interruptions. Usufructs, community property and forced heirship shape who owns what after a death. Drilling units are created by Office of Conservation orders, and a division of interest has to reconcile those orders with the leases and the tracts inside them.
That is ordinary work for a Lafayette firm. Outside Louisiana, the same runsheet, report and curative process runs under each state's own title and recording rules.
No. Our reports are landman-prepared reports of the public record. Legal conclusions on title come from an attorney, and our reports are built so an attorney can examine from them.
The tract or unit list, the deadline, what the work is for (a closing, a unit, a deck), and any title work already in the file.
Both, depending on the records. Prior title work and online indices cover a lot of ground; older and rural records still mean time in the clerk's office. We tell you which applies before the work starts.
We identify the requirements, locate the parties, and prepare or obtain the instruments the record needs. Anything that calls for legal judgment is worked with your attorney.
We build the division of interest and support deck setup. Tell us the format your system needs and we will deliver to it.
Tell us what the acreage is, what the work is for and when it has to be done. We will scope the job and tell you what you will receive.