Bulletin: LA000010

Dear Associates:

As all of you are painstakingly aware, several courthouses have been closed and some will remain closed for several more days/weeks. I will address the Orleans, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines Parish courthouses in later bulletins, but for now I wanted you to know the STG guidelines during this challenging time for Jefferson Parish.

The three issues that concern the issuance of title insurance are the ability to perform a title search, the gap, and the recording of documents.

Title Search

Due to the fantastic work of Jon A. Gegenheimer, Clerk of Court for Jefferson Parish, agents are able to perform title searches through their Internet based product; JeffNet. Even though we do not anticipate the courthouse reopening until somewhere around October 2nd, those companies subscribing to JeffNet will be able to produce abstracts with a certification date of August 23, 2005. We are confident that the records of this office are still in perfect condition.

The Gap

The Parish Government closed the Clerk of Court's office on August 26th and no real estate records could be filed or will be filed until the office reopens. All real estate documents presented by hand for filing on the day of reopening will be recorded in the ordinary course of business as well as any documents delivered by the Post Office. Stewart Title Guaranty is willing to take the risk of the gap period on its policies as if there were no delay in business.

Recording of Documents

We encourage our agents to close transactions during this time and promptly hand deliver all documents to the clerks office upon reopening.
All agents should continue to get the appropriate seller/owner/mortgagor affidavits for all closings. Except as described above, and until otherwise notified, our underwriting policies and procedures remain unmodified.

Please be very careful if you are traveling to the New Orleans area and let us know if there are any employees who are looking for placement outside of your business. We are getting several offers from other states as well as in state offices to hire employees in need.

Thank you for your business and please call me at 1-800-209-4675 x4 if you have any questions.