At first, when I moved here from VA, I was upset that I couldn't do closings.  In all the time I abstracted in VA, I never once had a title that couldn't be cleared through normal office procedures (i.e. getting satisfactions, releases, attorney affidavits, not the same person affidavits, etc).  Of course, in VA, I did closings all the time.  So when we moved here and started our business, we were upset that we couldn't offer that service (read, make that easy $$$).  But after three years abstracting in SC, I can tell you that I applaud the Bar for their stand on this issue.  We have two to three searches a week that will eventually go to court.  Additionally, I receive recordings all the time on searches I just KNEW would never close because of defects and I am HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY that I have someone's head above me on the block who cleared that title to close.  I hated to point out Lisa's error since she's such a nice person, but from her post, I gathered that she was being told to do closings in SC and that she was legally able to do it since the attorney was on the phone and it scared the poot out of me.  The Bar has reiterated over and over that the "physically present" criteria is absolute, something they take very seriously, as Attorney Lester found out.  I was at a seminar last year when this topic came up at lunch and although there was some creative imagining on how to circumvent the criteria, the result of our conversations over lunch were that the area was way too gray for them to chance it.  A claims person from First American was there and she said the vast majority of lawyers who have been caught out by the Bar are newbies, within six months of passing the bar--and there have been several reprimands just this year.  I really hope Lisa will read this and be more careful.