As an Abstractor who takes my profession seriously I am offended by the upsurge in offshoring of our work. Is the Title Industry to go the way of the Auto Industry. Have we not learned as s nation that sending our work overseas takes away our right for Quality Control. Do you really want overseas operators to have access to your information. Who is regulating them. Although Cheaper may be better to you when looking ad a plastic pot to plant your petunias it should not appeal to you when dealing with what is probably your biggest investment and assett your home. What has happened to us as a nation when faster and cheaper take the place of better and stronger. Americans need to wake up and smell the coffee. Are we to become a nation of Sevice providers for only those professions that require a body to be there at the time of service. When you use a local expert who is experienced and understands the laws of the area you live in you protect yourself more fully than you will with some company that may or may not have the expertise to fral with your research and you generate income in your local community. Are we to become a nation that outsoutces ourselves into oblivion.

County government exists to serve the county residents, not the business interests of foreign companies. Allowing uninhibited access to public records, absent of reasonable restrictions on the purpose of such access, is simply an irresponsible mandate for any government to impose upon the custodian of its citizens’ records.

Public records have always been available at the local level. Anybody with a need to access the public records has always been provided access. Any individual or company based outside of convenient travel distance to the site where the records are housed could always employ a local abstractor, who is familiar with the local recording system, to obtain the needed records.

The citizens who entrust their documents to government do so at a cost. They pay for the recording and indexing of their documents so that a workable system of record keeping may be maintained. Asking the citizens to foot the bill for the wholesale distribution of their information worldwide is a disservice, at best. At worst, it places the citizens’ safety and financial security in peril.

Not long ago, title plants were owned by local title companies whose main purpose was to examine those records and insure local property transfers and loan transactions. Today, a growing number of companies maintain their title plants overseas – in India, the Philippines, and other exotic lands. We hope you have educated yourselves as to the adequacy of privacy laws in those lands before dismissing concern over the destination of the Lake County land records.

We also hope you have educated yourselves in the process of examining land records. If you have done so, you will note that more information is necessary to fully protect the sanctity of home ownership than the records housed at the recorders office. Thus, the quantity and quality of the bulk information sought by Property Insight is not likely sufficient to facilitate the purposes cited in your editorial.

Lake County Recorder Frank Suponcic is correct in challenging Ohio lawmakers. Government openness pertains to the process by which government works, not selling out its citizens. Lake County residents should rally in his support.

The Officers and Board of Directors
The National Association of Land Title Examiners and Abstractors
Cleveland, Ohio