PURPOSE
Virtually all land surveying standards have resulted from the process of judicial precedent, as opposed to being an agreed upon codification of land surveying principles. Consequently, the public unnecessarily become litigants over land boundary location issues created by a lack of consistency in the application of law and the absence of uniform standards of practice.
The public is not well served by having to resort to judicial rulings to resolve common land boundary line issues that may arise in connection with real property disputes. The Professional Land Surveyor is foremost knowledgeable in these matters and can achieve discovery more efficiently so that all but the most difficult cases can be resolved through mediations and arbitrations.
The Record of Survey map is the Land Surveyor’s most powerful and respected tool as it should reflect the evidence and legal principles utilized in establishing and re-establishing the boundary lines, encroachments, topography and any other interest in real property disclosed by a field survey and deemed of importance by the Professional Land Surveyor. This map, when filed, permanently memorializes the surveyor’s evidence, procedures, landmarks and final conclusions in the public record.
Our organization researches, reviews, debates and publishes opinions and decisions issued by local, state and federal courts whenever they relate to the practice of land surveying. The opinions issued are intended to define and guide the standard of care in California and serve to educate fellow professionals.
We encourage and support mandatory continuing education for Professional Land Surveyors. We encourage the development of the Land Surveyor’s professional relationships with the legal community, the land title industry, the building community, the environmental analysis community, the real estate industry, the GIS community, the land planning community, and the civil engineering community.
These goals can be accomplished by relying upon, or proposing modifications to the following documents and related areas of law:
Preparation of Land Descriptions
Government Required Land Surveying Documents
Applications of Surveying Measurements and Measurement Standards within the Surveying Industry