Not directly on topic, but you referenced your client not understanding the different pricing for county copies based on how they're obtained. I'd really consider bypassing this problem entirely by moving to a flat fee for copies you obtain.

I always did $1 per page for copies. I'd lose a little money in the two counties I covered where you couldn't make your own and were charged $2 per page, but it evened out in the long run over the other thirty's fees.

I've never understood why we'd pass these along at cost. We aren't doing the search at cost. Not all of my clients requested full copies of everything, so I'm not putting labor fees they don't need in my base price. So, if I'm passing along the copy cost from the county, that means I'm eating the labor cost of physically making the copies, organizing them, scanning them, not to mention the time and space needed to store them afterward. It takes, what, 30-60 seconds to pull and write up a mortgage? Why are we charging them only $1.70 for the additional 5 minutes it takes to stand there setting 17 pages on a flatbed copies?

This was one of three things I'd frequently get questioned about from new clients and it was, I believe, the smallest issue after I told them what I said here... more kindly, obviously. :D And it was a small percentage that even questioned it, but it made things sooo much easier in the long run.

(Also, I'm glad to see this issue is getting worked out. I worked with DocHunters for many years and was a little surprised to see this. Sorry it took so long.)