The attorneys appeared before the House Judiciary Committee yesterday to support a bill they said will help solve the problem.

Much of their scorn was directed at Perfect Title Co., a company that has filed dozens of reports at the Bureau of Conveyances claiming existing titles are defective.

The reports, generally dismissed as frivolous by the industry, often cite treasonous acts committed decades ago against the Hawaiian Kingdom as reasons for the junk titles.

Even though the title searches are bogus, they create a cloud on ownership and can cause havoc with property transfers and other transactions, the attorneys said.

"The mischief that this kind of thing can cause is not only to banks or escrow companies or title insurers. It's to real people," said Neil Hulbert, an attorney who represents various companies within the industry.

John Jubinsky, counsel for Title Guaranty of Hawaii, said Perfect Title isn't the only culprit.

He noted that bogus liens are being filed by people who lose at foreclosure auctions but claim to be high bidder because they were the only ones who pledged to pay with silver or gold coins - supposedly the only "legal" money.

One man whose home was being foreclosed on by Bank of America recently filed a lien against the bank for $10 billion, Jubinsky said.

Using a law that was enacted last year, a judge ruled that the lien was frivolous and fined the man $5,000 for each filed document, Jubinsky said.

The bill under consideration, HB 1537, would expand the applicability of that law and ultimately make it easier to block bogus filings by repeat offenders. It also is expected to increase sanction limits.

While supporting efforts to help purge the system of the frivolous filings, Rep. Cynthia Thielen questioned why authorities haven't prosecuted the people running Perfect Title.

"It seems there should be a companion effort to get rid of this scam," she said.

"It looks as if they're making out with hundreds of thousands of dollars," Thielen added, referring to the $1,500 the company typically charges per report. Perfect Title has done roughly 200.

Donald Lewis, president of Perfect Title, said he was surprised by the criticism. "I don't know what all the fuss is about," said Lewis, who didn't attend the hearing.

He said the title reports aren't liens and challenged the industry to disprove them.

Rep. Terrance Tom, Judiciary chairman, said the panel would approve the bill with modifications.