Limiting liability is a legitimate concern for surveyors and for professionals across the spectrum. However, the privilege of professional recognition brings with it a heightened level of responsibility that cannot be avoided by quick disclaimers or clever denials.

The unfortunate truth is that easements — prescriptive or otherwise — have been treated as “poor relations” or insignificant side issues for centuries.

Easement disputes are on the rise across the nation, as illustrated by the ease with which they can be found in modern court records.

Many court disputes over easements created for transmission lines and other utilities involve easements that are not appurtenant to any particular tract, commonly known as "easements in gross."

Land use professionals have good reason to pay close attention to the twin concepts of "simultaneous conveyance" and "sequential conveyance."

Floating easements are problematic for surveyors because they only identify the subject tract that is burdened by the servitude and lack a written description defining the location within the tract.

Arguments involving retroactive legislation are common in modern courtroom disputes.

Surveyors spend considerable time and effort determining the horizontal limits of property ownership, but many aspects of the surveying profession bring a vertical component into the determination of property rights.

State laws generally include specific processes for statutory abandonment of public highways when specific conditions are met.

Although textbook definitions are common, the term "abandoned" defies easy categorization when applied to traveled ways.