Updating Massachusetts Deed Indexing Standards

The Massachusetts Registers and Assistant Registers of Deeds Association met on Tuesday at the Worcester Registry of Deeds to begin the task of updating the Massachusetts Deed Indexing Standards. Originally adopted on January 1, 2000 and revised in 2006 and 2008, the Indexing Standards continue to be a valuable tool for registries and for those who use registries. The new version, which we hope to make effective on January 1, 2017, should reflect the many technological, statutory, case-law, and registry practice changes that have taken place in the past eight years.

Our tentative timetable is to have a new draft tentatively adopted by the registers' association by the end of the summer and then publicly share the draft and solicit comments on it from those in the legal and conveyancing community. Once those comments have been received, the registers' association will adopt a final version and share it publicly prior to the end of 2016.

As milestones are met in this process, I will write about them here. In the meantime, if you are unfamiliar with the current Massachusetts Deed Indexing Standards, they are available in PDF form on the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds website.