Search Tips For Finding Equitable Mortgage Cases On The Internet

For those of you interested in searching for equitable mortgage cases on the Internet, you might want to consider the following:

1) Check out the LexisOne website. Upon compliance with their terms and completing their free registration, they offer free limited case law search capabilities (according to their site, the last five years of state cases and Federal appellate cases; U.S. Supreme Court cases back to 1790).

2) When you get to the page that contains the search box, select the radio button for "Search by keyword(s)". Then select your home state from the "drop down" menu.

3) In the search box, enter the following search command exactly as it appears below:

((deed OR conveyance OR title) w/6 absolute w/10 (mortgage OR debt OR loan)) OR equitable mortgage

What you're trying to accomplish with this search command is to find any cases that contain either the phrase "equitable mortgage," or the phrase "(deed OR conveyance OR title), absolute in form, given as security for a (debt OR loan), shall be deemed a mortgage" (or any similar sounding phrase).

More specifically, in the second part of this compound search command, you're specifically searching for the term "absolute" in any case where it appears within 6 words of either deed, conveyance, or title and, at the same time, within 10 words of either debt, loan, or mortgage.

You can try this search both for the state case law of your home state as well as the Federal appellate cases for the Circuit Court of Appeals within which your home state is located.

If your search fails to find anything meaningful, you can obviously "tinker around" with the search command to see if you have better luck.

When I did it, it returned over 100 cases. However, I searched the state cases for the entire country and with no date restrictions. A search limited to one state will obviously yield less cases; hopefully, it will yield at least one or two.

Ultimately, (unless your local courthouse has a law library with high speed Internet access computers with free access to Westlaw or Lexis), you may need to "spring" for the paid services offered by one of these companies. If you're working within "strict budget parameters," you may want to check out the Loislaw website which, the last time I checked, will give you immediate access to their case law collection for a 24 hour period at a charge of $24.99. See the Loislaw website for more details.
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