Top 3 & 1/2 tips for Serene Sheriff's Service.

Simple Steps Secure Serene Sheriff Service

1) Our first tip for Sheriff's Service is to always pay the Sheriff's Service fee at the time you e-file. This is the preference for all Clerks' and Sheriff’s Offices, providing easy and consistent proof of payment. If the fee isn't paid during a filing, this can cause an issue where the clerk can't easily make a record of the payment on the case. Most clerks will accept paying later with a check, but they won't be very happy about it.

Another approach to repairing the situation if you forgot to pay the fee while filing is that if you have more documents to file on the case, you can add the Sheriff's service fee with *any*subsequent filing, even if it's not the papers you want served. Then, if you're using Doxpop, you can do a service-only filing to have us mail the papers for you. (Call us for help if this sounds confusing!)

2) The second important tip in Sheriff's Service is to make sure you send three copies of the filestamped document to the Sheriff along with your proof of payment. If you are using Doxpop, we can make this happen for your automatically as soon as the documents are accepted through our "Delivery by Doxpop" service. For a small fee, we will watch for the filing to be accepted and then mail the filestamped copies for you.

If you aren't using Doxpop's delivery service to manage this for you, you'll need to wait until you receive notice of acceptance, then print the three copies manually along with a cover sheet and mail them to the Sheriff. When you send the documents yourself, make sure you also send proof that the Sheriff's service fee is paid. Your NEF (Notice of Electronic Filing) should list all of the fees.

3) A third important tip is that the Sheriff's service fee need only be paid once per case, by either party, and that covers service for any number of deliveries to any number of people in any Indiana county. Filers often make the mistake of paying for service a second time when it isn't necessary. (The Sheriff appreciates your donation!) 

The only situation that requires a second Sheriff's service fee is a post-judgment filing (a proceeding supplemental).

3 &1/2) Lastly, tracking the completion of Sheriff's Service can also be the source of some difficulty. It is important to keep checking the case summary (minutes) for an Affidavit of Service, because the Clerk will enter this when the Sheriff provides a return of service. This will appear as a minute entry, and if you use Doxpop, it is easy to set an alert on the case so you receive immediate notification when service is perfected.

Financial reporting issues "fixed"

In recent weeks, Doxpop's E-Filing Financial Reports failed for a number of users. (Sorry!)

Investigation revealed that the report generation program was encountering an envelope for a case that had an unknown type. The root cause of that problem was that the State's EFM vendor was not providing a valid type. We notified them of that issue and they'll presumably fix it in the fullness of time. However, because that may take a while, we've ensured it won't stop you in the meantime.

We applied two fixes for this, one to address the known "unknown type" problem, and in a tribute to Donald Rumsfeld, a second check for "unknown unknowns".

In the future, if the report generator encounters an unknown case type, it will report everything else about the envelope, including any financial information, and just put "Unknown" in the case type.

Additionally, if the report generator encounters any other error condition for an envelope, it will provide a message to the report recipient noting that the envelope was skipped due to an unknown error, and then continue processing the rest of the envelopes.

What that means for you is that in the future, if an envelope can't be reported correctly, you'll get the rest of the report along with a message listing the offending envelope number(s).

If that happens, please let us know right away so we can track down the problem with the envelope. However, in the meantime, you should be able to look up the envelope manually using the "My Electronic Filings" page under the "e-filing" tab.

If you do a significant number of filings every month and aren't using Doxpop's financial reporting, please give it a try. The option is found under the "e-filing" tab, and will produce a file that you can import into a spreadsheet to assist in documenting and billing back fees to your clients. You can run the report for any time period, any particular county (or all) and for one submitter or all submitters:

Happy National Paralegal Day! (Did your attorneys bring you donuts today?)

Although Doxpop serves the legal community generally, we know that the people who use our system most are paralegals and legal assistants, so these worker bees of the legal profession hold a special place in our hearts.

That's why we are eager to recognize the second National Paralegal Day today (August 6th). Today, we celebrate the day in 1968 when the American Bar Association created the Special Committee on Lay Assistants, now known as the Standing Committee on Paralegals. 

Paralegals have been the foundation supporting larger legal teams for decades. They are hard-working professionals, tasked with upholding high ethical standards while providing the specialized support that allows attorneys to pursue their work more effectively. Today, we recognize their contribution to the pursuit of justice for all.

At Doxpop, we hope this celebration encourages others to explore this vocation that can become a satisfying lifelong career, or a stepping stone to pursue a JD. We know that many of our users are legal administrative assistants who might want to take the next step in building their career by pursuing further education to obtain a paralegal degree.

If you'd like to become a paralegal in Indiana, the best start is to enter a formal educational program for paralegal work. Indiana does not require a State test, certification, or license because paralegals are required to work with the supervision of an attorney who is ultimately responsible for their actions. That said, you can certainly become a more likely candidate by obtaining a degree and/or taking one of the national certification exams administered by the National Federation of Paralegal Associations (NFPA), or the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA). The Indiana State Bar Association also has a Registered Paralegal Status that you can apply for to further establish your credentials in Indiana.

Locally, the Indiana Paralegal Association and the Northeast Indiana Paralegal Association provide mutual support, guidance, and continuing education to Indiana paralegals. Doxpop is proud to be a supporting member of these two organizations and we encourage the many legal assistants who use Doxpop to consider joining the group closest to you. They're not only great professional associations, they are fun people that we enjoy interacting with. 

Have a wonderful National Paralegal Day!

Frequently asked questions about Doxpop's Property Watch Service

https://watch.doxpop.com

Doxpop Provides a free service called Property Watch that allows property owners in the counties we serve to set a watch for Recorded Documents filed that match the legal description of their property and/or their name. 

The purpose of this service is to keep people informed of any Recorded Document that may affect them. Although similar services are touted as "Fraud Alert" systems, Doxpop takes a less scary approach: We believe that property owners should simply be aware of anything that affects them, including the vast majority of documents that are legitimate.

The following are the most common questions we are asked about this service:

How do I sign up for Property Watch?

Watching your name: To sign up for the service, you need to select the county you live in and then enter your FULL NAME as it appears on legal documents. We will alert you to any document filed in your selected county that matches this name, so using a last name only will result in many more matches and alerts than you may want. If you would prefer to watch more than one name, you may sign up separately for each additional name you want to watch.

Watching your property: After entering your name, you will be presented with some potential property transfers that match the name you've entered. If the date, seller's name, and property description looks familiar to you, you may select that document to add the legal description shown to your list of document alerts. This will create a separate alert for each legal description that will notify you when that description appears on a new document. If you don't have any properties to select or want to skip this step, you can still set an alert for your Full Name.

Finishing your setup: Once you've looked over the list of potential property transfers and selected the ones you'd like to add, you'll be directed to a page where you enter your information and select whether you would like to receive Email alerts, Text alerts, or both. For text alerts, we will send you a confirmation that requires a response to complete your alert setup.

What email address/phone number do the alerts come from?

• Email alerts are sent from propwatch@doxpop.com.
• Text alerts are sent from 806-590-4186.

It is important that you don't block either of these if you want to receive alerts. If your service provider allows you to mark certain sending numbers or addresses so they won't be blocked as spam, please add these.

Is property watch really free? How are you able to offer this?

The Property Watch service is provided at no cost to the public in counties where the Recorders have partnered with Doxpop. Because the Recorders who choose Doxpop are careful stewards of the public trust, no tax money or other public funding is used to provide this service to your community. Doxpop funds this service solely using the revenue we generate by providing research tools to professionals who use our system to locate the Recorded Documents they use in their business work. If you are curious about the paid services that fund this free service, take a look at https://www.doxpop.com/prod/common/AboutUs.

What about privacy? Does Doxpop sell the information I provide while signing up?

No, Doxpop will never sell or transfer the information you enter during signup. Our revenue comes from the services mentioned in the paragraph above, so there's no need or temptation to engage in shady practices. You can find our privacy policy here: https://watch.doxpop.com/property/privacy-policy

Will Property Watch prevent someone from filing a fraudulent document?

No. Because the law does not allow Recorders to reject any properly formatted document, it is currently not possible to prevent fraudulent filings. Our role is to notify you quickly enough that you can take action before the fraudster does damage by convincing their real victim (the "buyer") that they can take possession of your property. A fraudulent document does not  actually transfer ownership, so the damage that occurs is when the person who thinks they bought the parcel from a fraudster shows up to take possession. Immediate notification allows you to prevent the damage through swift action.

If I receive a notification, does it mean fraud has occurred?

No! In fact, fraud is extremely rare. The vast majority of notifications we send out just alert you that a legitimate document has been filed. That's why we call our service "Property Watch" instead of giving it a scary name like "Fraud Warning". If you receive a notification, there is usually no cause for immediate concern. We expect you will almost always recognize the document as being part of a transaction you're aware of. However, if you don't recognize the document, you should follow up as soon as possible to learn more.

Does signing up for Property Watch create a Doxpop account that I can log into?

No, Property Watch is a standalone service that does not create a regular Doxpop account. If you'd like to explore our other services, we invite you to sign up for a Doxpop account at our "Free" subscription level, which is designed to allow non-professionals access to public records. If you're interested, you can do that using the "Subscribe Now" link in the upper left corner of: https://www.doxpop.com.

Can Doxpop tell me if a document is fraudulent or affects me adversely?

No, We are not attorneys or title professionals. We can't offer legal advice. What we can do is alert you to the document filing and, if you ask,  provide some details about what appears on the document. In most cases, you'll recognize it as a legitimate document. However, if you don't recognize the document, you should investigate. If you call or email our support team, we can help you by providing some of the details about the document. If you are still puzzled about the document after learning those details, then we recommend you consult with someone who is qualified to render an opinion about if or how the document affects your property.

I have subscribed to property watch for a property that is described using "Section/Township/Range" in the legal description, and I'm getting alerts for parcels that are not mine. Why does this happen?

Only the "short" legal description and party names are consistently entered in the indexing system for Recorded Documents. In rural areas, the short legal is not very specific, and typically only allows us to narrow the match down to a "Section", which is a one square mile area. If your legal description is composed of one- or two-digit numbers and the letters N, S, E, W separated by dashes, you are affected by this. (Example: 29-11N-1W) Although we know alerts for this type of parcel are not very precise, we always send notifications for a potential match. We believe the trouble of investigating a potential false positive result is worth it to avoid missing an actual match. If you receive an alert of this sort, just contact us, and we'll look at the specific document to help you assess whether it really refers to your parcel.

I got notice from Doxpop about my neighbor's property transactions. Why?

If you live outside of an incorporated area such as a city or town, your "short legal description" is based on section, township and range. It is common for several people to own property in the same section. That means we'll send you an alert when a document is filed that references the same section. If you recognize the name of one of your neighbors on the document, that's the likely cause, and the document almost certainly doesn't affect you. 

This is a situation where we know some false alerts will occur due to the limitations of the property indexing system... But we believe better safe than sorry, so we send the alert to be sure.

Why can't Doxpop use my address or parcel number to avoid false alerts in unincorporated areas?

In Indiana, Recorders are required to index documents by entering the names of the parties involved and the short legal description. A short legal description will be a subdivision & lot number in an incorporated area, or section, township & range in rural areas. Because address & parcel number are not required to file a document, we can't use those without a serious risk of missing a document that doesn't include that information. Even if it means we'll have to explain a few false alarms, we'd much rather err on the side of caution given the stakes involved.

https://watch.doxpop.com