From the category archives:

Back Title

Who Owned it Before That?

Back Title September 14, 2011

by Katherine McKay, CLTP, former Administrator of PLTI and Executive Vice President of PLTA Since this column is entitled Back Title, I thought I’d revive an old chestnut about the ultimate back title. This story’s been around many times, from several sources, but it still gives me a laugh. So, to take your mind away [...]

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The Energetic Eighties – A Cruise through Common Ground

Back Title July 21, 2011

by Katherine McKay, CLTP, former Administrator of PLTI and Executive Vice President of PLTA Do you remember the ‘80s? Ginormous shoulder pads for women that made them look like NFL linebackers in drag. Waiting all summer to find out who shot J.R. Ewing on Dallas. Ronald Reagan in the White House and Mikhail Gorbachev ruling [...]

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Budget: A mathematical confirmation of your suspicions

Back Title March 15, 2011

by Katherine McKay, CLTP, former Administrator of PLTI and Executive Vice President of PLTA With the current real estate market still wallowing in the depths of economic despair, the PLTA has been forced to serious retrench by slashing its expenses and taking a hard look at all activities and their cost, a depressing pursuit to [...]

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ATE: From Bar to Web

Back Title December 21, 2010

by Katherine McKay, CLTP, former Administrator of PLTI and Executive Vice President of PLTA Actual classified ad: Wanted: Someone who is persnickety, patient and precise, careful, cautious, and conservative, suspicious, sober and utterly picky to search titles. Nearly 35 years ago I cut out this want ad and saved it. Though I didn’t have the [...]

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In the Beginning

Back Title October 12, 2010

by Katherine McKay, CLTP, former Administrator of PLTI and Executive Vice President of PLTA The first word heard beyond Pennsylvania about the founding of PLTA appeared in Volume 15, 1922 of The Lawyer and the Banker and Southern Bench and Bar Review. The last BACK TITLE column featured an ode to title searching, originally published [...]

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An Ode to Title Searching

Back Title September 14, 2010

by Katherine McKay, CLTP, former Administrator of PLTI and Executive Vice President of PLTA With huge thanks to Len Shatz, PLTA’s immediate past president, who found the following poem in The Lawyer and Banker and Southern Bench and Bar Review, published in Volume 15, 1922, here is an ode to abstractors of that time. These [...]

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Executive Committee of 1942 Discusses Holding Convention Due to War

Back Title July 20, 2010

by Katherine McKay, CLTP, former Administrator of PLTI and Executive Vice President of PLTA One of the few compensations of getting older is that we become more able to see current events as part of a continuously re-occurring cycle of history. New events acquire a depth and dimension that cannot be fully appreciated without knowledge [...]

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Remembering the 1997 Convention

Back Title May 10, 2010

by Katherine McKay, CLTP, former Administrator of PLTI and Executive Vice President of PLTA Title people can be inherently, as in sealed in our genes, crashing bores to such an extent that we often bore each other just hashing over our latest closing (also see: committee meetings and/or mechanic’s liens seminars). It’s a particular challenge [...]

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Introducing…Back Title

Back Title October 30, 2009

by Katherine McKay, CLTP, former Administrator of PLTI and Executive Vice President of PLTA Back Title … a previously examined title that lets subsequent examiners use that information and bring it down to date. In other words, someone starts something worthwhile giving those who follow a great head start. Prior to the slick Common Ground magazine [...]

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