I find that if the abstracting business is larger than say a single qualified individual or a partnership of a couple of people actually doing the work - the quality and qualifications gone down extremely.  When you think you can train someone in weeks or even months that has no legal or real estate background - you are looking for trouble.  I have watched people being trained lately from a larger firm and the trainer asked "you know what an assignment is don't you" - and she didn't - they are going to start doing title work. - oh my!