Jim, I consider the posting war over anyway--I said what I had to say.  I didn't post anything that actually required a response from you.  Questions contained therein were rhetorical. 

Once I receive the check, I will cease immediately making "war" with your company since I will no longer have an issue with your company. 

However, I will say one more thing and then I'm done:  You mentioned Paul's post and him as a gentleman.  I haven't anything to say against Paul of course, but you acted like his waiting was a good thing for his business since, as you say, he isn't burning bridges behind him.  It was MY choice, for MY business, to discontinue searching for you back in March.  If all things were magical and you and I had conducted our business of this week privately without any "war", I STILL wouldn't be accepting your work next week or the week after. 

And, unfortunately, what I'm about to say will be seen as argumentative, but you posted about the checks I had received, like I should be grateful.  I was initially grateful for the work, but because of the time involved collecting that money--I haven't actually made a dime!.  The April check was for August, September and October 2005 searches!  I feel like a beggar...Please sir can I have some more...

You also stated that you haven't in 7 years taken anyone to collections because you would be burning your bridges.  First, that is YOUR business decision.  I CHOOSE to aggressively pursue the monies owed me.  Second, some friendly advice, maybe you need to burn a few bridges so your clients take you seriously  or get new clients who pay.  That certainly would alleviate some of your payment issues.

If, by burning bridges, you think that I will lose business because some clients won't want to deal with me after reading my posts to you, then that's fine.  If they are concerned about my reactions to non-payment (of all things), then I don't want to work with them either--since I would cut them off just as I did you (BTW, I was asked to do a search for you LAST WEEK--what a laugh!). 

Prior to any of these discussions, I had already decided to focus my marketing on attorneys anyway, since the national companies like yours are the ones that want hoops jumped through, want their own forms done when it means extra work for my office, want to short-pay or no-pay--all for a lower and lower fee.  I don't have ANY of these problems with my attorney clients.  Why?  Because they know the law.  They know that whether or not the loan closes or even WHEN the loan closes, they have contracted with me to provide a service, I have provided that service, and my terms are 30 days.  Fronting me monies before closing or paying me even when the loan never closes is the cost of doing business in real estate law.  So I won't be losing sleep if I have alienated any of the dead beats lurking out there. 

But, I reiterate, WHEN I receive your check for payment in full, I WILL no longer have reason to "war" with you.  I DO reserve the right to exercise my freedom of speech when other unsuspecting newbies post here wondering if they should begin working for you.  I suspect you already know what my response will be.