That is an excellent point. The integrity of the public records is definitely adversely affected by the shoddy work that is done these days. The clerks used to scrutinize documents to make sure it was in recordable form BEFORE they would accept it. Now, too often they will take anything in and if they later find its not sufficient, they let you know that it needs re-recorded.
Items are often mis-indexed because the clerks were forced to adapt to new technology that they could not even comprehend. They don't understand how their records are used, or relied on, and it shows in their indexing.
Examiners that do not thoroughly search the properties, and their clients who don't care (or actually prefer it that way) just keep filing new documents without ever cleaning up the problems. This leaves all of us abstractors at risk because there are many more problems to be on the lookout for. The more potential problems that exist the more likely you are miss one.
It is sad... but you are right. Nobody cares about the integrity of the public records anymore. Soon, the crap they ship to India to be indexed will be worthless anyway. At that point, title insurance will just HAVE to become casualty based insurance because it will not be possible to do a REAL title search.
Best,
Robert A. Franco
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