A lis pendens is a pending lawsuit or legal action, or a formal notice of a pending lawsuit or legal action. For example, a lis pendens is an official public notice that a piece of real property has a pending lawsuit or claim attached to it—which may be especially relevant to potential buyers of the property, as a sale of the property will probably not extinguish or resolve the pending claim.

Lis pendens might also refer to the jurisdiction (power, authority, control) a court acquires over property while a legal action is pending. Or lis pendens may refer to a notice recorded in the public records (often county records) in the chain of title to a piece of real property—which is required or permitted in some jurisdictions to put all persons on notice that the property is the subject of litigation or of a claim. This notice informs potential buyers of the property that their future ownership of the property may be subject to other claims.

Lis pendens is often used when spouses are going through the divorce process and their real property assets, for example, have not been finally divided by their agreement or by the court. Banks commonly use the lis pendens process to put the public on notice that a property is in foreclosure. And a homeowners’ association may file a lis pendens when it seeks to foreclose on a homeowner’s home to satisfy delinquent fees or assessments.

The procedure for a lis pendens is usually located in a state’s statutes—often in the property code or in the code of civil procedure, for example.

In New Hampshire, a lis pendens serves as a formal notice to the public that there is a pending lawsuit involving a specific piece of real property. This notice is typically recorded in the county records where the property is located, which becomes part of the property's chain of title. The purpose of a lis pendens is to warn potential buyers or other interested parties that the property is subject to litigation and that any interest they acquire in the property could be affected by the outcome of the lawsuit. New Hampshire law requires that a lis pendens be filed in the registry of deeds in the county where the property is situated. The notice must contain a legal description of the property, the parties involved, and the nature of the claim. This ensures that the lis pendens is properly indexed and provides constructive notice to anyone dealing with the property. The use of lis pendens is common in cases such as divorce proceedings, where the division of real property assets is in question, in foreclosure actions by banks, and in actions by homeowners’ associations to collect delinquent fees or assessments through foreclosure. The specific procedures and requirements for filing a lis pendens in New Hampshire are governed by state statutes, which can be found in the property code and the code of civil procedure.