Just to follow up on this, every independent abstractor I ran into on Friday - I stopped and asked them how they felt about this policy and what would they do.  The overwhelming response was that this is someone trying to make us do more for less.  Also finding someone in this area to do that type of service was basically going to be very hard.  The answers ranged from "I'm are busy enough" to "that's not my job" to "we aren't paralegals" to "I would never do that". 

On Friday, I wrote the company an email and basically explained my position that I did not want to do this and why (very polite, mind you).  The answer I got back was that I am "allowed" in the meantime to either fax or email my orders, but:

I just can’t guarantee the work in the future because the company really wants the abstractors to e-abstract the orders. 

So basically if they "find" someone else to do this - I am probably out.  But if I just talked to most of my competition, and the overwhelming response it they won't do that either - I guess that means GOOD LUCK.  Sure, we all know there are some people out there who do this for side money (not seriously), and might get suckered into it.  However in the last few weeks two abstractors have left this field to do oil & gas searches, so that means there is less people and just as much work to do.  The people I know who are serious about this are out there hustling doing their work, or helping others do their work, and don't have time to type up reports (or the extra cash to pay someone to do it for them, or want to take on the added liability).

As for people in India doing my searches - YEAH RIGHT.  The last thing I need is Kumar (aka Bob) doing my work wrong and putting my name and reputation on the line.  As far as I'm concerned, this company can pay someone in India to type my search - as long as its not me doing it.