I check civil. (None of my clients request it)  But I asked around and many abstractors said searching civil was not part of a title search. Some said they were trained to search all the records in the record room, and civil is separate.  And others said that if the case affects real estate the court will record the final order in the record room, and if it doesnt involve the real estate it doesnt matter, that they were trained to only report items that affected the real estate.   For the record, when I was trained, I was told to not check civil (but I check it anyway).

Robert, if the client does not request that they check it, could it still be a claim against the abstractor?  This is why there needs to be some sort of standards for abstractors/title searches.