"The county clerks "conservatively estimate" that the unrecorded documents would average ten pages, and that there are "ten to twelve" unrecorded transfers per MERS mortgage-- implying $1150 to $1380 in avoided fees per MERS mortgage.  "

Holy smoke...how long are the Assignments in LA - in my experience, Assignments are one page, max 2...do they record a copy of the note with it?  I've never seen a 10 page Assignment of Mortgage in 25 years doing real estate closings.