Posted By Cee Gee on 11/16/2008 at 11:03 AM

In the past on this board we've debated whether we, as land surveyors, can draft deeds and/or BLA's without "practicing law without a license" (i.e. see the thread "Re: do you make deeds?" on 11/19/07).

I stumbled on the following from an online record of a recent Maine board disciplinary hearing. By a unanimous vote the licensee was sanctioned, required to pay $1430, and no doubt unprofitably hassled and deprived of sleep. The board is not the law and this may get appealed, but I would think any Maine PLS would be wary of taking a casual attitude toward this topic.

The board wrote: "[surveyor]... drafted the proposed Boundary Line Agreement between ... [the parties], which is a task beyond the scope of practice for a land surveyor. The Board reasoned, in part, that drafting a Boundary Line Agreement with the intent to convey property pursuant to that document was beyond the scope of a land surveyor's license unless it was forwarded to an attorney or someone else authorized to convey property."

Here's a link to the whole (long and windy) thing:
pfr.informe.org/almsonline/almsquery/CaseDocument.aspx/1/4280/568836/1/36444/148427/LSU2758%20MILES.pdf