Monday, March 15, 2004

A blog reader emailed that occasionally, he'll discover a typo in our index and pass it along to the registry staff. This reader suggested that a list of the changes we make could be made available online. It's a good suggestion since it addresses a topic of great importance to us all. Here's the nightmare scenario for you users: You're doing a rundown of Donald Trump, let's say. Earlier that day, the sheriff recorded an attachment against Mr. Trump but when we typed the name in the computer, it was entered as Thump. Well, when you searched "Trump" you didn't find anything, so you passed on the property. A few days later, someone tells us of our mistake, and we change Thump to Trump in the index. A few days after that - the way life works it's undoubtedly Friday at 5 P.M. - you get a call from someone telling you that you missed an attachment. How can you prove that you didn't miss it? Don't worry: you can subpoena the Keeper of the Records of the Registry to your malpractice trial. We keep a journal in which we record the date and content of all changes. The computer system actually keeps track of it too, but we've yet to master how to generate the appropriate reports, so we keep the old fashioned record book. If you have any suggestions about this, please let me know. And thanks, John, for suggesting this topic.

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