Hi Lisa,

Yes, there wasn't much in the link but I'm glad to see it has some SOT readers thinking. Rich also wrote me about this and found some more information on this case. Thanks Rich. I've created a web page that explains the case better.

This isn't an exact parallel in this case to the bulk sale issue but it does bring up some interesting points.

Selling the records in  bulk digital form to out of state aggregators while charging local abstractors full price for copies harms local taxpayers, business, and even the county itself. Local businesses lose the competitive edge they gained by investing in the community. Taxpayers lose their privacy and security. The county loses an asset the taxpayers paid them to create. There really isn't anyone in the county who benefits.

I like your idea of requesting the copies in digital form but why ask for them in bulk form? Why not ask for the copies you need on a CD or direct hookup to the county computers by USB? It really won't matter what order the images are in as they would include only those documents relevant to the searches you did that day. What will matter is the fee they charge, and the county should charge you no more for the pages you need on CD than they charge the bulk buyers for a CD containing up to 10,000 pages. Most counties are only able to charge between five and fifteen dollars per disk. In the case of direct download by USB, one county I know charged only one dollar for 100,000 pages.

By requesting only the pages you need on CD or USB you will need to sort through 10,000 or 100,000 pages but only the documents you requested.

A large part of the justification the counties have used in the past for charging a dollar per page was the clerks time involved in opening the books, removing the pages, copying the pages and reassembling the book. Whether downloaded from the county website or printed from the county computers at the courthouse, there is no longer a clerk involved. I agree with you that the fees charged to local taxpayers may be unlawful. This is especially true given that the county is reproducing the documents for those outside the jurisdiction for one ten-thousandth of the price they charge their own constituents. It may take a lawsuit on behalf of local taxpayers, abstractors, and courthouse researchers similar to the one I quoted to correct this injustice.