Hi Kevin,
Just this week I received an email from Ginny McClaren, Register of Deeds, Tuscola County. I worked with Ginny in the Michigan suits last year and trust her explicitly.

I believe the suit against Wayne County is just another assault by some national title companies in retaliation for the counties there beating them in court. When I read that article I thought, there they go again. They are trying to force Wayne County to comply the national companies desire to force the county to provide the records in a form they can easily export overseas. In other words they intend to claim the taxpayers asset and make the taxpayer pay for it to boot.

Their claim of a six months wait time sounded so familiar to me. It was bogus when ALTA made that same claim to our legislators here and I believe it is just as bogus in this case. ALTA made the claim that if the title companies were not given free remote access and cheap bulk transfer that it would take six months to do a title report. One of our sharper legislators on the committee blew the ALTA rep out of the water by asking him if this is how long it takes local title companies now in counties that are not online. As I recall, the rep stumbled a hesitant, "well, er, ah , no". Then the legislator asked him if it took this long before technology made online access and bulk transfer possible. Of course, the rep had nothing to back up his ridiculous claim.

I don't think it is a very good idea for the counties to issue title insurance but you have to admire the Wayne County Register of Deeds for putting this on the table. :)