I would also say if you have stupid HTML guys (and don't we all) consider using a templating system that limits the amount of damage they can do

I realize now it wasn't clear from my post, but the bad template logic was written by me, not the dumb HTML guy.

I guess you also might ask why are null (or even blank) titles allowed for a document. To me, this is an example of why properly designed databases, including constraints, etc, are so important.

Indeed. Unfortunately, in MySQL, when you have a varchar column declared NOT NULL, and you fail to supply a value, it enters an empty string, which is fale in Perl.