Due to the slow down, they have one too many employees; i.e., not enough work to justify keeping everyone in the office.

Instead of laying off one employee, cut all vendor fees by $8 per search and have the employee make telephone calls to the tax office for each search.  Employee makes a call, writes down information and it is put with the search information.  Not a perfect solution and certainly can be risky in some states and cases. 

It does, however, do two things: keep one in-your-face, brown-bag lunch table buddy, single parent  employee working and reduces down out-of-firm expenses.