The Expert Podcast

More and more states are advising their department of motor vehicles offices to go directly to a court-ordered title process when there's some type of complication on the title. Many states for years did not have knowledge at the DMV level that you could get a court order title when you didn't have the right paperwork for the DMV. We're seeing more local DMV branches directing their customers and their clients to go right to the court process. In fact, some courts even now have as part of their paperwork. Here's an example from a county in Florida where it says court's instructions for vehicle ownership application. It says, "It is sometimes possible to obtain an order to assist you in obtaining a title for vehicle you own, but which you did not receive a title at the time of purchase." Does that sound like you? That's 99% of the people who have title problems. Either they didn't get a title when they bought it or they did get a title and they lost it.

The court may issue an order directing the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, that's what DMV is called in Florida, to issue a certificate of title for your vehicle. This is exactly what a court-ordered title is. It's a court order that tells the DMV, you must issue this person a title. And many times people think, I don't want to deal with the court or go to court. It's not a big like law and order Jack McCoy court case. It's all administrative. It gives you all the series of steps you have to go through to do the process. In this case, there's a bunch of different steps you have to go through. Uh but it's all paperwork. It's all documentation. And if you follow the instructions carefully, you can have the court become your friend, your ally in dealing with the DMV.

Remember the DMV or whatever it's called in your state. Some states call it Department of Transportation. In Illinois, it's Secretary of State. Uh in Pennsylvania, it's called PENDOT. Every state has an agency that issues titles. They have certain rules they have to follow. They cannot give you a title. No matter how much they want to, no matter how much they like you, no matter how much you think you have the right paperwork, unless you have the prior title signed over to you, they're not allowed to give you a title. However, their get out of jail free card is the court. The court can override the DMV by looking at your bill of sale, looking at your cancelled check, looking at letters you have, or something proving that you bought the vehicle, and they can say, "Okay, this person has the right stuff." They sign a document.

You bring it to DMV, you slap it on the counter, and they have to give you a title. So, a court-ordered title is actually preferred by the DMV when you have title problems because it gives them an out. They don't have to fight with you about what you have or don't have. The courts like to do it because they like to help you. In fact, this memorandum you're looking at on the screen came from official court documents. The problem is the I shouldn't say the problem, but the hard part is in order to prepare the forms for the court, it's not like a blank fill-in-the-blank type document you've seen before. It's not like name blank, address blank. You have to create these sheets of paper from scratch and figure out a way to put the wording on it. Our website will give you some more information on doing that. Every county's a little bit different and sometimes you'll still have to navigate the court.

One very important thing to keep in mind is don't go into the court in person and start asking them how to do it. They can't tell you. Sometimes they'll tell you we don't know how to do it or they might even tell you we don't do it. They may not know. Even if you have all the paperwork put together, ready to go, don't bring it into court in person. Always do it by mail because you want to have it filed in their system without having to talk to somebody that maybe has the wrong information. So, in our experience, if you send it by mail, you'll have way better success than if you bring it in person. I know it's tempting. You want to bring it in and talk to somebody and try to control it, but a lot of times that’ll be your undoing and they won't accept your paperwork. But if you mail it, you'll be in better shape.

So, the court order title process is, you know, it's been used for decades. We've been doing it for decades, but more and more courts are actually having forms like you see on the screen. More and more DMV locations are telling their customers to use this instead of trying to go with the DMV because their hands are tied. They can only do so much. So, use it to your advantage. Go over the head of the DMV. Go to the authority that can tell the DMV what to do. Look what it says right here. The court may issue an order directing the department to issue you a title. That's what you want. You want somebody to direct the DMV to give you a title.

Think about how much of a runaround you've got from the DMV. Think about how frustrating it's been. How would it be to have somebody with power to be on your side to tell the DMV no ifs ands or buts, give this person a title. That's what the court can do for you. If you like this video, be sure to click on a few others on our channel to see if there's other information that might be helpful to you about this same subject or maybe even other related subjects that could assist you with your resolution of your issue.