I get copies of record documents all the time, and they are always handed to me at the time that I pay for them. Court docs, such as divorce decrees, are usually obtained from the court house of the county where the case was heard, rather than the recorder’s office.
I have never had to wait for a doc to be mailed if I was personally present at the office.
You said — “I have never had to wait for a doc to be mailed if I was personally present at the office.”
That’s the kind of stuff that always ended up tripping up Chief Editor Korir over at API (African Press International). He would say something that just wasn’t right (in a procedure or how something normally happens) and it would cause all sorts of questions from others. The posters would start to wonder and make accusations. Korir would become incensed and say that he was doing all that he could — but — eventually something would not work out and things would be delayed or the information wasn’t correct or “whatever”...
What a game!
The microfiche rolls and bound books were delivered to the attendant behind the desk via a dumb waiter system. I could get copies of what I saw on the microfiche viewer and books, but it would take about an hour to wait to print an UNcertified copy because of the queue in front of me.
But to get Certified copies, there was at least a 12-hour queue in front of me. I could either come back the next day to pick it up in person — a pain in the butt with court house parking, going through security, etc. Or, I could have the documents delivered and get them at my office, in one more day, via US Mail.
In this era, where we are accustom to everything being Digitized, we forget that some information is still stored in antiquated forms of non-digitized media and old, dusty books ...