Thanks Kevin. Its good to hear from you again. I've been away from posting, but I do read the board often.

Many abstractors and county clerks were left holding the bag for the Katrina work. I don't want to paint the no pays with to large a brush. Some of the contractors did pay up.

The contracts were let to the four New Companies, all from the same town or nearby towns. These guys got in because of work they did after 9/11, is how it was explained to me. None of the companies had any Mississippi, Alabama, Lousianna, or Texas title experience. But they did have the contacts. I believe most of the contracts were set at $325 to $350 per job. The Federal Government paid for each job as the documents were sent from Houstion and Birmingham. So the monies were place in trust accounts, I would suppose. The abstractor who did the work charged at approx $85 for the search and $40 for each filing. And many times we had to advance the filing fees because the New York Companies couldn't be bothered to determine the filing fees.

Being a forner long time Mississippi lawyer, and currntly a long time abstractor, with a vested interest in trying to help the clean up on the coast; many times I'd advance the filing fees so the people could get their money, Well, many times I didn't get refunded for the fees, much less for the services. I say this because it appears the money was there. It just wasn't disbursed to the people doing the work. To me that raises the level of the claim from a debt collection case to a case of fraud. Thats the theory I'm operating under now.

The casinos are doing fine in Biloxi and Gulfport now, but if one goes a couple of blocks from the beach much of the downtown areas are still a wreck and these theives from New York only added to the problem. Thats my opinion.

James Toney

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