Well said - in my simple words I thought they were "passing on the buck of responsibility."  I just had another thought - perhaps they did all the other typing of the policy and inserted the recording information after it was received; therefore, the policy was already dated - or another thought - here in Texas we have a record date and a file date - which can be 2 different dates.  Perhaps they could be picking up on a file date and not the first record date.  The record date is the date you actually bring the doc to the courthouse and pay the fees - the file date is the date it gets stamped with the official file stamp and technically becomes part of the records - it can actually span where you record it Friday morning and the file date shows on Monday or even perhaps Tuesday but our docs show both dates.  Is this in other states as well?  This normally happens in our bigger counties like Dallas county.