Searching real estate property records online instead of wasting valuable time and gas driving to the local courthouse makes perfect sense to Reed Adams, whose job requires frequent document checks.

"With the cost of gas right now, it's an excellent saving for us," said Adams, director of land surveying for the civil engineering firm of Koontz-Bryant PC.

Adams electronically checks deeds of sale and land-transfer records several times a week in the counties of Chesterfield, Henrico and Hanover -- ever since a state law went into effect July 1 requiring circuit court clerks across the state to make such records available on a secure remote-access system.

The General Assembly mandated the measure as a convenience to the public, although it was principally designed to benefit real estate agents, lawyers, title researchers and other professionals who routinely search land records to conduct their business.

"In the suburban-urban corridors, where the business community and a lot of the land transactions take place, this is a huge deal -- a huge efficiency factor," John G. "Chip" Dicks of FutureLaw LLC, who helped craft the law and represents the Virginia Court Clerks Association. "It helps streamline commercial and residential real estate transactions -- and business transactions -- for the benefit of the consumer." The secure remote-access system has been more than 10 years in the making, with its roots in a 1996 law that provided funding for the digitization of local land records. The concept for secure remote access was established six years later, and last year's assembly mandated that records be made available online beginning July 1 of this year.

The service isn't provided, free, though. The legislature allows clerks to charge a fee of no more than $50 per month, but the law doesn't apply to private vendors hired by the courts. The public documents can be viewed for free in person at the clerks' offices.

However, many clerks require users of the online service to sign multimonth or yearly contracts, as well as to pay the entire amount in advance. That could mean a payment of $600, or as much as $960 for localities that use private vendors.

That's the cost of doing business for users like Adams, whose company willingly pays for the unlimited access. But critics say such a sum is prohibitive for individuals who might want to use the database for just a month or two, such as people doing genealogical research.

"If someone was doing one search in a month, or two searches over a couple of months, 12 months [prepayment] does seem a little bit excessive," said Jennifer L. Perkins, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. "And I would want to know the justification for that charge."

She added: "It doesn't seem to me that a year-round cost . . . would be in [keeping with] the spirit of [the Freedom of Information Act]."

Dicks said the fee structure is fair and the result of a compromise between clerks -- some of whom wanted to charge $100 to $200 a month, he said -- and groups such as the Virginia State Bar, the Virginia Bankers Association, the Virginia Association of Realtors and the Virginia Land Title Association.

"We all agreed that we didn't want to get [clerks] into the monthly invoicing and collection process and the expense of all that stuff," Dicks said. "The clerks don't have the personnel or the collection experience to deal with that."

"Considering that we compromised the fee down to $50 a month per subscriber, that seemed to be a fair balance," he added.

Although the General Assembly tried to standardize the fee process, a check of area courts found notable differences in subscription requirements and the fee required for access.

The circuit courts in Chesterfield and Henrico use private vendors and require a year's subscription.

Chesterfield requires prepayment of $600, while Henrico's vendor charges $80 per month, if debited monthly by credit card, or $960 for the year, if paid by check.

Requiring a year's prepayment is to residents' benefit, said Chesterfield Circuit Court Clerk Judy Worthington.

"I can see somebody wanting to enter into an agreement and pay 50 bucks [for one month], then go in there and fish around and get what they want to hurt somebody. Then you never see them again," Worthington said.

"It's my role to make sure that I don't put out information in a fashion that can be hacked or messed with, and that's why the secure remote-access standards are in place," added Worthington, whose office has digitized all county land records dating to 1749.

"So if the courthouse burned down tomorrow, I could re-create all these records within a week," she said.

Henrico Circuit Court Clerk Yvonne Smith also believes that yearly subscription requirements will keep away people who might not have the best intentions. "I think each clerk is going with what they feel is the best and most appropriate way to protect their constituents."

But Perkins, of the open-government coalition, has concerns.

"Its very clear in the law that you're not supposed to be a gatekeeper," she said. "FOIA says access is access, and we purposely have fought against things . . . that favor one group or another, whether it's media, commercial or private citizen."

Richmond Circuit Court requires a $300 prepayment of six months and uses the remote-access system set up by the Virginia Supreme Court. Clerk Bevill Dean said he tried to strike a balance between requiring a full year's payment and charging a month at a time.

"We'll probably lose money off of it," Dean said. "But by the same token, it's a service to the citizens. So it's hard to weigh that."

Hanover Circuit Court also uses a private vendor but requires only three months' prepayment, $150. In addition, the clerk's office will refund on a prorated monthly basis any unused portion of an account, Clerk Frank D. Hargrove Jr. said.

Petersburg Circuit Court is even more accommodating, requiring payment for only one month at a time with no multimonth subscription. But Petersburg uses the same private vendor as Henrico, which charges users $80 per month.

"We're flexible with the subscriptions," Petersburg Clerk Benjamin Scott said. "That's designed to give access to some of the smaller people and businesses who may not be able to pay that much upfront."

To protect the public from identity theft and other criminal misuse of the records, the General Assembly mandated that all Social Security numbers be redacted from the online land records by July 1, 2010. Most courts have already complied.

"As of this date, there's [about] 120 [circuit] court clerks . . . and right at 98 or 100 have already redacted their Social Security numbers," Dicks said.

Hargrove said the jury is still out on the risk that online records may pose.

Documents now available online "have been open in the clerk's office, and the clerks' offices don't check the identity of the people who look at the records," Hargrove said. "Time will tell whether having these redacted documents available to a very limited universe of subscribers poses more of a danger than having the records available in the clerk's office."

Dicks foresees a time when land records might be made available on an open Web site, much like some criminal records are accessible now through the Virginia Supreme Court.

"In the long term, the secure-remote-access environment won't be necessary, in my view, because once we eliminate the sensitive information, then no harm can come to consumers," he said. "At that point, we can relax or eliminate those standards. But we're not there yet."
Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or mbowes@timesdispatch.com.