I agree that you definitely have to have a passion for abstracting to be in this field, but it gets awful tough when you are facing a stack of bills and your hard working employees deserve a raise AND your customers are trying to pressure you to lower your fees. 

I have some really good clients who understand that it takes time to produce quality abstracts and they NEVER complain about the price.  I really appreciate them, unfortunately more and more of them think that all we have to do it go to the courthouse and press a few keys on the computer and the abstract is miraculously generated.  "That shouldn't really cost $45, right?"  If only it were that easy.

I apologize to all for my frustrated rants on the subject, but it is getting more difficult to deal with this trend.  We are taking a stand against lowering our fees because it just isn't possible for us to produce the same quality work we do for less.  If we lose a few clients, we will just focus on providing a better turn-around for our "good" clients who understand and care about the quality of the search.

Robert A. Franco
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