I have known of an unscrupulous attorney claiming Mineral Rights to properties he did not own the rights to. The owner had to hire an attorney to get them back. The unscrupulous attorney was disbarred as a result, but I’m hearing cases of thieves attempting to steel mortgage deeds in several states. Is this a concern with Mineral Deeds?
Mineral owners need to know what they own first of all. A lot of the time some lease brokers & their landmen make mistakes. Also companies “in house” landmen & title attorney’s make mistakes. There are many disputes of who actually owns what percent of the mineral rights. Title LOCK?
I am unaware of any way to “lock” title. Not just unscrupulous attorneys, but CPAs working for unclaimed property division of the Oklahoma Treasurer have also stolen monies. There were a few court cases where landmen and other presented false documents in order to claim mineral interests that did not belong to them. Some counties are now allowing owners to register their property and/or names in order to receive alerts when items are filed with that information. For example, Oklahoma County provides this service free of charge. Oklahoma County Clerk Alert - (https://alert.okcc.online)
I have heard of commercial companies that provide this service for a fee, but have no information on their reliability or cost. The best thing to do is to make sure that your information is up to date. If royalties suddenly stop, it might be good to review.
PS, Glad the scumbag got disbarred. Most attorneys that I deal with are very scrupulous.
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