The rating system is an excellent tool for registering legitimate complaints about service or payment, but it is a double edge sword that cuts both ways. I recently saw someone on this board negatively rate an abstractor for poor service...only to see the complainant was negatively rated on one of the signing agent boards for slow payment. If a client company's cash flow is declining, and they have nothing to lose there is nothing to prevent them from posting a retaliatory negative posting about the complainant. It can initiate a series of negative postings for both parties which may or may not be accurate. Be prepared for a negative rating in return from your problem client. As you have indicated you routinely check the ratings of companies to find out if they have problems with timely payment. So also do the legitimate companies look at these ratings for complaints of service problems for abstractors. Rarely does anyone try to ascertain whether the information is correct...too much time and effort.  Rather they assume that where there is smoke there must be fire, and because of the negative rating there must be a problem with the abstractor. They then move on to the next abstractor to assign work.

I have found it more productive to deal directly with a delinquent account, work with them to resolve the problem, and terminate them if the fail to make reasonable efforts to resolve the problem. We normally have credit limits that we extend to various clients. There is also resort to the legal process for collection, and in various states there are statutes on the books which allow the recovery of litigation expenses as an alternative to common law contract disputes.