I agree with you, Kevin, in principal.  But as a practical consideration, the time you spend in small-claims court will at best only get you a judgment.  It won't necessarily get you paid.  Most likely, the clients that don't pay are MVCs of some variety and they probably won't care about a judgment for a few hundred dollars.  If you want to collect it, you would have to file it, probably out of state, and pursue some type of collections. 

Abstractors really need their own special legal aid office.

Best,
Robert A. Franco
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