Title Search and Document
Retrieval Services

The Court Street Difference:

Court Street Abstract, LLC (CSA) was started in 2004 by a group of friends whose work in real estate public records began in 1998. CSA was conceived as a boots-on-the-ground alternative to large vendor management companies, thus giving our clients quick access directly to the courthouses. At the time there were, of course, many “mom and pop” local abstracting companies working in county courthouses. What differentiated us was a robust technology platform that allowed us to be paperless when most of our competitors were still faxing and/or mailing their completed title reports. We also invested in well-trained office staff who could be easily reached by phone as needed. Backed by such a strong team and technology, we planned to build CSA into the dominant go-to source for title searches in Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati. With a lot of hard work and good timing, that is exactly what happened.

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky: We began our journey with a small rented office in Covington, Kentucky. At that time, we only marketed to the greater Cincinnati area. It took about 3 months or so for clients to experience our potential and request us to cover additional counties. As volumes grew, we hired additional employees and successfully expanded our coverage area.

Lexington Kentucky: After the Northern KY and Cincinnati markets were running well, we set our sights on Lexington, KY. Following the same model, we quickly grew that business. With additional well-trained employees and managers added, the team was ready to expand our boots-on-the-ground operations into the Louisville area.

Louisville, Kentucky: The Louisville expansion just happened to coincide with the financial crash of 2007-2008. And so at that time, we had to switch gears from refinances and purchases to foreclosures. Thankfully, we had the expertise on hand to rise to the challenge and further expanded our team to service that market.

Two thirds of Kentucky covered by employee abstractors: And today, we have highly trained employee abstractors who cover 2/3 of the State of Kentucky. These employees live near a cluster of counties which they cover daily.

Chicago, Illinois: Back in 2012, one of our top clients asked us to start accepting work in Chicago, Illinois. After a few months of intensive study of state statutes, we were able to hire an experienced employee abstractor to cover the Greater Chicago area. Today in 2024, this employee is still with us. Although initially we were covering numerous counties in the Chicago area, today we are only offering boots-on-the-ground title searches in Cook County.

Culture: Throughout our 20-year history, we believe one of our strong points has been our culture. We are a values driven company with a strong emphasis on supporting our employees through the ups and downs of not only our business, but life in general. Many of our staff have been with us for over ten years. The benefits of such long-term experience then passes onto our clients in the form of timely and trustworthy reports, and sincerely caring and responsive service.

Our Local Advantage:

Real estate title work in Kentucky is unique and varies widely across the state. While two-thirds of the country uses the government survey system for property legal descriptions, Kentucky is one of the few states that uses traditional metes and bound descriptions. Additionally, the variety of title work spans from developed urban areas to rural properties passed through multiple family generations.

Court Street Abstract has an experienced and dedicated team of staff abstractors who are local to the counties they serve. An understanding of not only state laws, but also intimate knowledge of the individual counties is key to performing quality title work. By employing abstractors who are physically familiar with the counties they serve, we are able to ensure that they understand the individual complexities unique to the counties they cover.

Being local, our abstractors have the distinct advantage of forming relationships with the county offices. This is beneficial in many aspects, especially when untangling issues that occasionally arise. They also have specialized knowledge about each individual county that an outsider wouldn’t know or easily discover, such as special tax assessments, records that are not available in online databases, or periods of time when there were indexing issues that require special search techniques.

This specialized information, along with the comprehensive training and continued abstractor support sets our team apart. Regardless of how many years of experience an abstractor has, there is always the potential to uncover something new or something complex and our abstractors never have to face this alone. There is always senior support staff available to review titles and navigate issues to ensure that our clients receive thorough and easy-to-understand reports.