I disagree. We are already seeing the impact of the electronic title plant on the industry. We have already seen posts on SOT by abstractors that have had clients go over to title plants, and relegate the abstractor to retrieving documents and minimal work that can not be performed on line at this time. It is going to get worse. The individual abstractor lacks the clout to stop this trend. Anyone that thinks otherwise is in a state of denial. The VM's are not reducing the fees they are charging their clients, but are widening their profit margins at the expense of the abstractor by reducing both his/her fees and volume of work. I think the only way to alleviate the situation is to beat the VM's at their own game...form your own title company, approach the lender's directly with rates competitve with the other title companies/ VM companies and assign the work directly to the abstractors that are member's of your company.