Daily AncestorLis pendens
Lis pendens is Latin for suit pending, a recorded notice that a lawsuit concerns a piece of land.
Lis pendens means a suit is pending. A notice of lis pendens is filed in the land records to warn anyone buying the land that a lawsuit could affect its title.
When you find one in a deed index, look for the court case it refers to. The suit may be a partition among heirs, a mortgage foreclosure or a dispute over a will.
As seen in a recordEntry in a county deed index
Notice of Lis Pendens: Hart v. Hart, affecting lot 14
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Lis pendens." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/legal-land/lis-pendens. Last checked 2026-10-01.