Kevin,
This horse has been beat so bad it's like a heaping mound of ground chuck. Your question is answered simply by stating, "No they can't perform an abstract from 5,ooo miles away. In some counties the assessments are still found in a three ring binder sitting upon the assessor's counter." I will fall back on my comment that 15 billion in revenue is worth 700 million in losses. It's sheer math at work here. Even if losses were to double to 1.4 billion it would still be an acceptable loss to the title industry.

George