Arkansas Asset Search Services

Circuit Clerk and Other Records

1. Circuit clerk land records, all 75 counties: The circuit clerk serves as ex officio county recorder for deeds, mortgages and liens, so each county’s records are searched under the subject, spouse, trusts and entities.
2. Circuit clerk judgment records: A judgment is a lien from the date the clerk records and indexes it, as to anyone without actual notice (16-65-117(a)(1)(B)), so the judgment index in every county is read for existing creditors.
3. Secretary of State: LLCs, corporations and partnerships with their members, managers, officers and agents, plus UCC financing statements. Fixture filings, timber and as-extracted collateral are filed where a mortgage on the land would be recorded (4-9-501), and farm-related filings have gone to the Secretary of State since January 1, 2010.
4. Vehicle titles: Requested under a DPPA permissible purpose.
5. Federal court: Two districts: the Eastern District sits at Little Rock, Helena and Jonesboro, the Western District at Texarkana, El Dorado, Fort Smith, Harrison, Fayetteville and Hot Springs (28 U.S.C. 83). PACER shows suits, bankruptcies and federal judgments.
6. Coast Guard and FAA registries: Documented vessels and registered aircraft, which no county index lists.
7. Other states: Property, entities and judgments under the same names nationwide.

Equal Division of Marital Property

This is not a community property state, and it is not a pure discretion state either. Marital property is distributed one-half to each spouse unless the court finds that inequitable, and an unequal split must be explained in the order (Ark. Code 9-12-315(a)(1)(A), (B)).

Marital property is what either spouse acquired after the wedding, less property brought into the marriage, gifts, inheritances and property excluded by valid agreement (9-12-315(b)). With an equal split as the default, an asset left off the inventory shifts the result directly, so the report lists each parcel’s recording date and grantor and each entity’s filing history, for both spouses.

The Uniform Voidable Transactions Act

Act 1086 of 2017 converted the old fraudulent transfer subchapter into the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act, which now runs from 4-59-201 to 4-59-215. A transfer is voidable if made with actual intent to hinder, delay or defraud a creditor, or without reasonably equivalent value while the debtor was left too thin to operate or pay debts as they came due (4-59-204(a)), or while insolvent as to existing creditors (4-59-205(a)). The creditor carries the burden by a preponderance of the evidence.

• Deadlines (4-59-209): Actual intent: 4 years after the transfer, or 1 year after it was or could reasonably have been discovered, if later. Constructive fraud: 4 years. Insider preference under 4-59-205(b): 1 year.
• Factors (4-59-204(b)): Eleven listed considerations, including a transfer to an insider, keeping control of the property, concealment, and a suit pending or threatened beforehand. Insider status is a factor, not a presumption.
• Insiders (4-59-201): For an individual debtor: relatives, a term that includes a spouse, and a corporation the debtor directs or controls.
• Transferees (4-59-208): Judgment can run against the first transferee or a later one, but not against someone who took in good faith for reasonably equivalent value.
• In bankruptcy: A trustee can avoid transfers made within 2 years before the petition under 11 U.S.C. 548.
• What the search adds: The recording date, grantee and stated consideration of every deed and entity change, set against when the debt arose.

Search Method

Each circuit clerk’s land and judgment records are searched under the subject, any spouse, known trusts and every entity the Secretary of State links to them, followed by vehicle, vessel, aircraft and federal court records and the same names in other states.

An analyst confirms each match and reports it with the record needed to order a certified copy: the instrument number, entity filing number, title record or federal case number.