You should hire an attorney and go after them, and do it fast. Someone posted something on SOT last year about sueing a company that owed her money and she got her money, she was fed up and determined! And she did it without an attorney, unfortunately I do not remember the name of the gal who did this.

I, in the past have had non-paying clients, but I ALWAYS paid my abstractors because without them I do not have a company,

I only have 2 clients that I let go over 20K a month and they are both Fidelity companies who I have done work for for a long time and I always get a check every 3 weeks from one and checks 3-4 times a week from the other.

And I have a book keeper that stays on top of my recievables. And I do not have a problem cutting off the non payers.

I think you are being unrealistic about setting a standard, just like the mortgage industry having so many criminals working in it, there are now plenty of the criminal element working in our industry.

I think what you need to do is sue them for your money, and if more abstractors did that instead of complaining about not getting paid, it would send a message to these non-paying companies that their unethical behaviour will not be tolerated.

As long as everyone sits around complaining and doing nothing, nothing is exactly what you will get. We do not have to be "victims."