Letters to the Editor
I see articles like this from time to time excoriating the title insurance industry. I have been practicing law since 1973 and have personally closed over 7,000 transactions during that time. I am also agent for Chicago Title Insurance Company and Stewart Title Insurance Company. I hope the following information provides a more accurate picture of the title industry.
This is my response to W.R. of Port Charlotte and columnist Malcolm Berko.
Your real estate contract required the seller to provide you with an Owner's Policy of Title Insurance as evidence of the transfer of good title.
To provide a title policy the title company must search all public records including the recorder's office, the treasurer's office, subdivision plats, condominium declarations, zoning ordinances, courts of law, courts of equity, federal courts, bankruptcy courts, etc.
The title company will also review other documents including certified copies of authorizing documents for corporations and LLCs, divorce decrees, etc. The title company will not issue its policy until all of these matters and any others have been reviewed and cleared. Finally, the title company checks the deed of conveyance at the closing for any errors. This is a considerable amount of work that must be performed on each file.
Most of today's title expenses are due to lender requirements, secondary markets, government regulations, etc. Closing packages from the lenders that used to contain 15 to 20 pages have increased to more than 100 pages, and closings that lasted an hour now routinely run two to three hours.
Without the title insurance industry the real estate market could not function. The title industry is relied upon for land acquisitions, property development, property conveyances and land trusts. In addition, it is the title industry that enforces divorce decrees, bankruptcy judgments, creditor judgments, municipal property codes, etc. The title company acts as collection point for taxes, judgments, etc. They are the watchdogs who make sure everyone's rights are protected in these actions.
Russell P. Rasche, J.D.
Naperville
Finally, the GOP has "one of those 527 groups" and some community activists. My question is "what took them so long?"
To be "fair and balanced" I have to assume Mr. Ward will use his journalistic zeal to investigate the George Soros and moveon.org funded 527 the Democratic supporters use.
And while you are at it how about some investigative reporting on that well-known community activist group ACORN and their partner SEIU.
Sherry Miksa
Big Rock
"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his god, the people in the First Amendment, declared that their legislature should make no law respecting or establishing of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state."
This separation is for the good of the citizenry and for its protection. It is to prevent, in part, a repeat of the history that other nations went through in religious wars by granting everyone the right to worship as they please and to not have the government dictate how that worship ought to be done. It also prevents the sanctioning of any particular religious faith over another by the government. Nowhere in our Constitution or the Bill of Rights is there is clause or phrase which declares the United States a solely Christian nation.
Whenever I hear about our "Christian Values" I have to wonder: whose values: Baptists' values, Congregationalists' values, Lutherans' values, Catholics' values, Evangelicals' values? What about the spiritual values of Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Bahai or Islam? Are they of less value in our classless society? In theory all of these religious faiths were given the same freedoms by the First Amendment even if the Fathers had not known of them at the time.
I am a senior Christian and that is the one great lesson that my faith has taught me regardless of what nation I may live in. But I do thank God that I live here where I am able to freely practice my faith without the mortal dictates of another telling me what I have to believe and who is not worthy.
I would fear the tyranny of any one particular religion, even my own, if it were established as the state religion. We do not have a state religion! We are not a Christian nation! We are a nation of law, established on two secular documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
And rather than pray that God will take over the reins of our government, I pray that God will continue to keep religious zealots away from our government.
Denis Esposito
Montgomery
There are countless red flags raised from what we know what's on the table; a price tag of over $1 trillion, 10 years of funding for 5 years of program, premiums for existing plans will go up and are likely to be taxed, Medicare Advantage will be gutted, additional burdens on states for Medicaid, and on and on.
In the current rhetoric, doctors, insurance companies, and even the Chamber of Commerce are being demonized, the elderly are treated as commodities and youth are penalized for their healthiness.
After all this, the number of people covered goes from the current 90 percent to only 95 percent. The so-called public option, state's choice, triggers or co-ops all lead to the same thing -- single payer system government takeover of health care.
In the end, it is all just a path to tyranny by self-righteous politicians plotting behind closed doors to decide our fate. The Constitution, Article I, Section 8, provided by our nation's founders gives Congress the power to collect taxes to "pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States."
"General welfare" does not mean wealth redistribution.
The goose that lays the golden eggs is in the oven, and it is almost cooked. Call and write Congressman Foster and Senators Durbin and Burris. Let your voice be heard.
Lee Lueking
Batavia
