If you are talking about including this information in a negative rating , it will not solve the problem of a retaliatory negative rating from the problem client. Rather than stating that the check is in the mail, it is more likely that the client will become defensive, and will claim that they did not pay the abstractor's bill because of poor service. Their claim of poor service may be totaly false.However, it will cost the abstractor a good deal of lost business in the long run because of potential clients avoiding him rather than taking the time to determine if the claim of poor service is false. The more expansive the dialogue in the ratings becomes between the abstractor trying to collect his bill and the problem client creating a smoke screen for non-payment, the more likely it becomes that title companies seeking abstrators will not want to involve themselves in the debate. As I understand the rating system, once a negative rating is posted, it is on the board for good. It does not go away. All you can do is attempt to explain it away which may or may not work. The point is that it is better not to open the door to a false negative rating.You can of course seek legal action for trade libel, but the time and expense of doing so would be more productively spent building your business.

There was a similar feud on one of the signing agent boards a while back. A particular signing service had a history of slow payment with notaries all over the country. The signing service claimed that the signing agents had either made billing errors or that their work was substandard. All those notaries from all those different areas could not all be wrong. As a result a large number of signing agents are now avoiding this signing service completely. They don't want the hassle. The same is true of posting a negative rating on this board's business directory.