From the Wool-sack

• Publication year: 1980
• Pages: 1892

9 Colo.Law. 1892 Colorado Lawyer 1980.

1980, September, Pg. 1892. From the Wool-Sack

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1892

Vol. 9, No. 9, Pg. 1892

From the Wool-Sack

by Christopher R. Brauchli

That title from a better man I stole:

Ah, how much better, had I stol'n

the whole!

Robert Louis Stevenson

There are any number of reasons that we attorneys should be grateful to title insurance companies. In the first place, they have relieved us of the tedium of examining abstracts, something new lawyers in the metropolitan area know about only because of reading history books. Furthermore, title companies have relieved us of the task of preparing settlement sheets at real estate closings and, in many cases, if clients are believed, the need for attending such closings.

Although this is not a column about abstracts, young lawyers may wonder why the abstract, at least in the metropolitan area, has gone the way of the dinosaur. Before title companies wrote title insurance, there were lots of abstracts in the world which had been created by the title companies. When title companies realized more money could be made insuring rather than abstracting titles, they found their own creations were their biggest competition. Accordingly, title companies offered a reward to anyone who turned in an abstract.

Although the reward was never as much as a title insurance policy cost, it was enough to tempt most bounty seekers and, accordingly, people were happy to turn in their abstracts when selling their houses. Once in their hands, title insurance companies, recognizing the threat posed by these booklets, would dispose of them so they would not be available for future use. (The reason, of course, that title companies flourished and abstracts did not, was that lawyers who examined abstracts could not offer a fee reduction to clients who traded in title companies.)

Having simplified life for the real estate attorney in the areas described as well as others, this past session of the legislature title companies were able to protect the public and the practicing lawyer from an insidious proposal made by the Summit County Clerk and Recorder. As real estate attorneys know, one of the reasons for having abstracts and title insurance was the people who orginally set up the method of keeping track of real estate titles were unable to devise a simple method of indexing recorded documents.(fn1)

It was a significant task for a lawyer to make a record...