Rule 114A.Real Estate Order and Abstract

Every divorce judgment that distributes real estate must include a real estate order, attached to and incorporated into the judgment, stating who is responsible for recording the abstract of the decree with the registry of deeds and paying the recording fee; an adequate description of the property, by reference to a recorded instrument or probate record, by metes and bounds, or by reference to a recorded survey plan; the property's street address, including the town or municipality; any provision the court intends to encumber the real estate, with its conditions; and a clear statement of the parties' resulting ownership interests.

Once the judgment becomes final, the party responsible for recording requests an abstract from the court and pays the fee set by Administrative Order JB-05-26; if that party has a lawyer, the lawyer must submit a proposed abstract on the court-approved form along with the request. The court certifies the abstract, which attaches and incorporates the real estate order and adds the case caption and any resulting name changes, the issuing court's name, and the date the judgment became final. The requesting party, not the court, records the abstract and pays the recording fee. If the judgment distributes real estate across more than one county, the court enters a separate real estate order for each county, and the responsible party requests a separate abstract for each.