(Nov. 20, 2008) – Paperless recording of mortgages, deeds and other documents may be a rarity in Indiana, but it is proving to be popular in Allen County.

On Thursday (Nov. 20, 2008), the Allen County Recorder’s Office received its 1,000 “e-recording,” a milestone achieved less than eight months after launching its online recording service.  Electronic recording was launched in Allen County on March 24, 2008.

Allen County was the first county in Indiana to begin offering electronic recording and it is so far the only county in the state to offer the service.  Electronic recordings can be submitted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, although processing occurs only during business hours.

“In just a few months, e-recording has transformed from an experiment into a routine way for our customers to do business,” said Allen County Recorder John McGauley.  “Businesses forced to do more with less in tough economic times will find e-recording to be a very useful tool.”

In Allen County, electronic recording is estimated to save an average of three minutes per document in processing and handling time, amounting to 50 hours of time saved since the service began.  E-recording has resulted in the automatic payment of more than $20,600 in fees that otherwise would have been handled in the office through manual transactions.

Electronic recording saves significant time and labor in the recording process, both on the part of the customer submitting the document and in the Recorder’s Office.  The customer avoids a trip downtown, a wait in line and the chance of having to go back and repeat the process if something substantial is missing from the document or incorrect.  The Recorder’s Office avoids handling and tracking of the paper document, initial data entry and scanning to produce a digital image.

The potential time commitment involved in manually recording documents grows if the transaction is done by mail, which is the case for many large mortgage and out-of-town law firms, title companies and others.  Errors or omissions can result in delays of days or longer in recording.