I would have to disagree with your opinion of the title companies being blameless. I write title insurance policies for one of the larger title insurance companies, and they always reserve to right to have the title search performed by their approved abstractors. By no means do they acquiesce in pressure from the banking industry because they are underwriting the risk.I think the interesting point made by the above post is that apparently in order to work for a title company one needs to sell title insurance in addition. Doesn't sound like the banking industry to me.

Whether the practice constitutes an illegal restraint of trade is an interesting question. The Kansas statute at issue needs to be challenged  on those grounds in order to answer the question. If enough of the abstractors chose to rise up in opposition instead of sitting back and doing nothing as usual we might have an answer

While North Carolina may have chosen to do nothing to stop notary closings, there are a number of states that have closed the gap to require attorney closers rather than notaries. There are also additional states that are currently moving in that direction.