Title insurance is somewhat like oxygen, you don’t really pay much attention to it, but when you come to a situation where you realize that you need it, you really need it.

I have represented title insurance companies and their insureds for well over a decade.  The difference for clients between having valid title insurance and not having valid title insurance has amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees and costs defending lawsuits filed by their neighbors.

Some of the issues I have handled that have been covered by title insurance include: (1) a claim that there was a forgery in the chain of title 20 years before my clients purchased the property and thus they did not have valid title (after I took the plaintiff’s deposition, his attorney promptly dismissed the case); (2) a claim that a neighbor had adversely terminated a deeded exclusive easement for landscaping, recreation and fencing, and that the exclusive easement violated the Subdivision Map Act (we established at trial, with the judgment upheld on appeal, that the easement did not violate the subdivision Map Act, and the easement had not been terminated); and (3) a claim that although my client had been using a roadway on his neighbor’s property for over decade, my client had no valid easement and thus no access at all to his property (this case is still pending). Read more