We do verify that people register with a valid email address.  I cannot think of a way that we can verify a person's name or physical address when they register.  I do not think that I want to force people to register from an IP address with a location that matches their business address.  I probably just have to monitor people's activity more closely and kick off the worst offenders. 

I think that sorting the directory by proximity to the county being searched is an excellent idea.  We don't prohibit people from advertising search services in far-flung areas, but we do generally want to support the local abstractor who physically operates in the counties they serve. So I've obtained a geo-location database and have my test site ordered by the distance of the business from the county being searched.  There's just a couple minor kinks to work out.  I should have this up and running on the site tomorrow.