Legal Boundaries

The surveying profession has always been a measure-centric profession. What I mean by that is surveyors love their measurements, and that is where the primary focus of surveying practice has been concentrated from the very beginning. We have always been the expert measurers in the room. We can analyze our measurements, run closures, make adjustments, and check those measurements. In other words, we can do the math, and we love doing it.

The only thing that comes close to the satisfaction our measurements give us are the tools we use to make those measurements and the computer programs for manipulating the data. We trust our measurements because we can prove they are good and accurate measurements. This is how we have traditionally determined that our survey is accurate, by a closure ratio within acceptable tolerances as articulated in our technical standards, which were written for technicians by technicians.  

All of this is fine for a measure-centric profession. The only problem is, we are no longer the only ones who can measure expertly. Anyone with the right tools and the training can also become an expert measurer. We are seeing this play out in real time with unlicensed individuals encroaching on our measurement turf. The reality is, it is no longer acceptable to just be an expert measuring technician, unless you like being a technician racing to the bottom with the other technicians.

Not too long ago we discussed a few (certainly not all) of the “hallmarks of professionalism,” as derived from the DNA of the clergy, the doctors, and the lawyers—the traditional big three professions. Those hallmarks are what create separation between the big three and other so-called professions: e.g., a calling as opposed to a vocation; opinion-based services, they all sell the same thing; special relationship with the client, a trust; and one that I inadvertently omitted was they all take an oath when entering the profession. Where we, the land surveying profession, intersect the big three is at opinion-based services. 

But, you say, measurements aren’t opinions they are facts—and you would be correct. Society no longer needs the land surveyor for expert measurements, anybody can make expert measurements and everybody’s making them. What society needs from the land surveyor is the same thing they need from their priest, their doctor, and their attorney—a well-reasoned opinion that only the professional can give. 

Licensed land surveyors are the only people on the face of the Earth who can give an opinion on the one question society has for the land surveyor—where are my property lines located? Oh, you say, only a judge can do that. Now, you would be incorrect. A judge needs a lawsuit to make a property boundary determination, the land surveyor doesn’t. The unlicensed expert measurers out there can’t make that determination either, at least not yet.  

Now, here’s the rub. Too many surveyors do not know or do not believe that their calling is rendering well-reasoned opinions on the location of property lines on the ground. They are stuck in a measure-centric mindset where an accurate survey is a survey with a good closure ratio. That is only true if the focus of a property survey is on the measurements to the exclusion of correct results. 

The real focus of a survey is an accurate determination of the location of the property boundaries that have already become established on the ground. In other words, correct results.

Measurements are merely evidence—and not even the best evidence—for achieving correct results, e.g., an accurate survey. The land surveying profession needs to wake up, for even what little we still have left in the way of professional practice will also be taken away. 

Next time around we will talk about formulating a well-reasoned opinion and figure out how you can check that opinion. And no, it is not with a closure. Retracement surveying is an evidentiary exercise, not a measurement task.       

The purpose of this column is to encourage your questions on legal issues that affect the surveying profession. You are invited to send your questions to the Editor of xyHt.