Where Do I Record a Deed in Arkansas?

The answer may surprise you!

The short answer:  The Ex-Officio Recorder of Deeds (Circuit Clerk) in the correct judicial district where the property lies.  

The long answer:  The position of Recorder of Deeds is, to the knowledge of the attorney here at Arkansas Deeds, a mere a statutory relic to bygone era.  The Arkansas statutes allow the County to deem the Circuit Clerk as the “ex-officio recorder.”  The office of Recorder technically exists, but the Circuit Clerk does the job as a matter of course.  It is a it like the Pope having the title “Pope” and also having the title “Bishop of Rome.”  It’s more work for the same money!  Most likely, the merger of Recorder with Circuit Clerk occurred after the advent of the photostatic copier whereby an exact duplication of the original deed could be done instantaneously.  Prior to then, the Recorder of Deeds was a justifiable full-time job of transcribing deeds (by hand or typewriter).   Examine some of the old deed books before 1940 at any Arkansas courthouse sometime.  They are solely handwritten pages or typewritten pages.  Some of the wealthier counties had books of deed forms into which the recorder wrote the parties and legal descriptions  (not a good thing because a form deed may not be entirely true to the original).  This made the Recorder’s job a bit easier, but not more accurate!  The proper official to send a deed to is the Circuit Clerk in the correct judicial district where the property lies.   Naturally, the next question is:   What is the correct judicial district?  This is a very sticky wicket indeed.   It depends on the County and the Section, Township and Range of the land in the County.   In all, 62 of the Arkansas’s 75 Counties have a single recording district.  If you send it to the county seat of a county, you have an 88.2% chance of getting it right.  Ten of the 75 Counties have two recording districts.  Thus, there are 85 judicial districts but only 75 counties in Arkansas.  A 11.8% chance remains that without proper guidance, the deed will go to the wrong district. The deed must be of record in the correct recording district to count as notice to others!  Record the deed in the wrong district, and the land could be sold by the vendor twice with no recourse to the second buyer!