Ask a land expert
Need a landman who can explain the record?
Tell us the issue and the county. A landman on our team reads it and comes back with who fits the work.
Or start from the issue
- Title to minerals or land
- Royalty payments and deductions
- Pooling and unitization
- Lease termination and held by production
- Retained acreage
- Right of way and easements
- Heirship and probate of minerals
- Surface damages
For attorneys, and for owners, operators and lenders, in disputes over the land record. We are landmen, not attorneys.
Issues
Disputes we work on
Each page explains what the land record can show, which documents matter, how a landman's work helps, and what to send.
- Title disputes over minerals and land
Who owned what, and when: how a landman reads the chain of title, severances and conflicting deeds for a title dispute.
- Royalty payment and deduction disputes
How a landman checks a royalty decimal, the division order and the deductions on a check stub against the lease and deeds.
- Pooling and unitization disputes
What the record shows about a pooled unit: the designation, each lease's pooling clause, ratifications and tract participation.
- Lease termination and held-by-production disputes
Whether an oil and gas lease ended is a question of dates. How a landman builds the timeline from the lease and well records.
- Retained acreage disputes
How much of a lease survived its retained acreage clause, and where. A landman maps the wells, the acreage and the depths.
- Right-of-way and easement disputes
What was granted, to whom, where and for how long: how a landman reads pipeline, road and utility grants for a dispute.
- Heirship and probate of mineral interests
When a mineral owner dies and nothing is filed, the interest stays in their name of record. How a landman traces successors.
- Surface damage disputes
Who owned the surface and minerals when, what the lease and any surface agreement say, and where the facilities sit.
Work
What we do now
- Record research
- County, probate, court and state records for the lands in suit, read from the images. Runsheets, ownership flowcharts and copies of every instrument cited.
- An expert report on the land facts
- What we were asked, what we read, what the record shows with a citation for each fact, and opinions limited to land practice, with exhibits.
- Consulting for attorneys
- Reading the other side's land work, framing the record questions, and finding the instruments that answer them.
- Deposition and trial support
- Land exhibits, preparation, and testimony on the report.
How it works
From a note to the right landman
- Tell us the issue and the countyA line or two is enough. Party names come next, for a conflicts check.
- We check conflictsBefore anything about the merits, we check the parties and companies against our own records.
- We come back with who fitsA landman on our team, when the county and the issue fit our work. When a landman we know fits better, we say so and introduce you only with your OK.
Questions
Common questions about the record
- How do you prove an oil and gas lease terminated?With dates. Where the facts for a lease termination claim sit in the lease, the state well records and the county records.
- What documents show who owns minerals after a death?Probated wills, administrations, affidavits of heirship and judgments: what the record shows after a mineral owner dies.
- How is a royalty decimal checked?Rebuild it from the instruments: the owner's fraction, the lease royalty and the tract's share of the unit. A worked sample.
- How do you tell if a lease is held by production?Find a producing well the lease's terms count, then check production has not stopped longer than the lease allows.
- How do you check which tracts are in a pooled unit?Read the recorded unit designation, its plat and tract list, then check each lease's pooling clause against the unit.
- What does a landman expert witness do?A landman expert explains the land record and land practice: who owned what of record, and how the land work was done.
- How do you find a pipeline easement on a property?Search the county records under every surface owner for grants, then follow each one to the company that holds it now.
- How do you read the deductions on a royalty check?What each line on a royalty check stub shows, and how to set the deductions beside the words of the lease.
- What is a division order title opinion?The title opinion an operator gets before paying on a well: every owner, every decimal and every requirement.
- How is retained acreage figured?From the lease's clause, applied well by well: the trigger date, the acreage kept around each well and any depth limit.
The record
How the record works in Texas and Louisiana
- Where Texas land and mineral records are keptCounty clerk, district clerk, appraisal district, Railroad Commission and General Land Office: what each holds.
- How Louisiana parish land and mineral records workClerk of court conveyance records, judgments of possession, mineral servitudes and state unit orders in Louisiana.
- What is a runsheet?A runsheet lists every recorded instrument affecting a tract, in order, with the facts a title examiner needs.
- What is an abstract of title?A compiled history of the recorded instruments affecting a tract, prepared to a date. How it differs from a runsheet.
Proof
What an expert report on the land facts looks like
A made-up royalty dispute over a made-up tract: what we were asked, what we read, what the record shows with a citation for each fact, and opinions kept to land practice. The page also carries a key to the shorthand landmen use.
Not a dispute?
Looking for something else
- Need a runsheet or a title packet for a deal, not a dispute? See landman.services.
- Own minerals and just got an offer to lease or sell? See landman.review.