The Expert Podcast

So, what exactly is a court-ordered title? A court-ordered title is a process in order to get a vehicle title certificate. Let's say you bought a vehicle maybe on Craigslist or Facebook somewhere and you didn't get the title. Maybe the seller didn't have a certificate to give you and you try to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles or your titling agency in your state and they tell you, "No, you don't have the right paperwork. You can't get a title because you don't have the last title signed over to you." Or maybe you have it, but there's something wrong with it.

What you can do is what's called a court order title. Now, some states and counties call it a different name. They might call it a declaratory judgment or a mandamus or some other methods. And it's a process where you file a petition in the county court where you live to have the court declare you to be the owner of the vehicle by court order. Then you bring that to the DMV and they give you a title.

Now, this is an example of a document that's created for one particular county in Florida. The only bad news is the counties and the government agencies don't have pre-made forms, right? There's three counties in the country that have some forms in Ohio. Everything else you have to do it from scratch. So you have to know how to structure this document.

But the courts do know how to do these. But the problem is they can't help you. If you go into the court and say, "Hey, I want to do a court order title." First of all, the clerk at the window, they're not going to know what you're talking about because that clerk handles thousands of cases every month. And every case is different. Court order titles, dog bite lawsuits, you know, my fence is too high, the divorce case, small claims court—all these different cases. So, they don't have a specific knowledge of every single type of case that comes across their desk. The clerk doesn't do that.

So you have to tell them what you want. You have to write the words. And if you look at this form, it says, "You will be back in your video in just a few seconds. In the meantime, remember that actualhum.com offers you live one-on-one private video consultation with an expert in this exact subject. We want to listen to your story. We want to hear your questions. We want to give you expert advisement of your options and tell you what we know about your particular situation. Now, back to your video.

Complaint for judgment. It says that this is an action requesting a judgment involving the acquisition of a clear title for a blank. The plaintiff is a resident of county and so and so. And every county will have a different format for this. You'll have to put the VIN. Look at number six. The VIN number is this. Number five, you say on this date I purchased a vehicle. And number eight, you have to tell them what actions you've taken to secure the title. So, you're going to have to figure out how to put together these words. This works for certain counties the way this is structured. Other places have different requirements.

But that's what a court order title is. It's like going over the head of the DMV, kind of going over their authority because the DMV, even if they wanted to give you a title, unless you bring them the old title, they're not allowed to. But by using this process, going to their authority figure, which is the court, you can get a declaratory judgment that the court will provide to you to help the DMV give you what you want.

Now, when you hear this, a lot of people think, well, is this going to be a big deal? Do I have to go to court? Is it a big hearing? Look, this is not like what you see on TV, you know, where they have a big court case like My Cousin Vinnie, where there's a judge and a jury and people. It's not like a big thing. In fact, in most cases, you never have to go to court. You mail this in, let the court handle it. It's an administrative process. They do it in the office and they mail you your documents. Sometimes they'll even file it with the DMV for you. And there's a way you can make that more probable.

Also, when it comes time to submit this document to the court, you do not want to bring it in person. What you want to do is mail it to them. And there's a lot of reasons why, but you want to mail it to them.

You can get more specific information about how to do a court order title. Click on the website link below and we'd be glad to share that with you. If you found this video helpful, be sure to click on other videos on our channel to see if there's further information that could give you more insight into resolving your particular situation.