Dear John - This message is meant especially for you.  This is what you can do for your lending institutions/title companies/banks.  Tell them that when they sign on with anyone they require that there is no on-line searching to be done by nationwide vendor management companies.  That in itself will refocus the pricing problem, cause a lot of E&O claims not to be filed and minimize the costs that the lending institutions are incurring because these orders are being done online and improperly.  I have seen assignments filed 2 and 3x - the filing fees are higher than our search fees.  I believe this is due to nationwide companies thinking that the online sites are setup exactly as the courthouse and they are not.  In addition, indexing is different in every county in every state and no one could possibly figure it out and perform services effectively.  Assignments are found in our individual counties by running the legal description - not by running the names.  They are not indexed that way as a general rule - some are under names but that is rare.  They see one and they think they have them all.  I also believe, from what I have seen, that online forms services are being used as some are picking up a form Assignment that states for property description "as provided in the Deed of  Trust."  Well in Texas that assignment will not be found in most counties - as like I said before they index them by the legal description not the mortgagor's name so that assignment will never be found unless we are provided with the actual recording information or exact date of the recording we can go to the bank's name - otherwise - I cannot look through 50,000 records on file with that bank's name - the only other way that they are indexed - in most Texas counties - not all - some have just started indexing under the name maybe the last couple of years. 

To refile an assignment not found repeatedly could cost the lending institution easily $50-100 not counting the cost of preparing the new assignment, etc. way over the cost of a one time search by a qualified abstractor who doesn't assume at the cost of your company that things online are the same at the courthouse.  I've tested the services myself and even if I could get things by legal online when I search for a name all records do not pull into my computer for that name when using the internet - haven't figured out why but they do not.  I think something must have happened because even when the county clerk's themselves are putting the sites up they have added a recent disclaimer about the records not to be used as accurate recordings - those are only found at the courthouse and should be used for informational purposes only.

Lisa