Under Florida Law/MTS, you are absolutely allowed to attach a survey report that explains your interpretation of the evidence you found, which of course, is based on your professional judgement and experience, and your opinion.
Without more details, its hard to say if your note is OK. There are some ways in which a surveyor can run astray, and I think that it's outside of a surveyor's confort zone to have a hard opinion about something like adverse possession, for example. I would not put a note survey that conveyed an opinion about adverse possession, but I would put a note a survey that pointed out that a long standing fence diverges from the record boundary, and that some property may be subject to unwritten transfer. 😉 You have to be careful how you word things, lawyers get pissy when they think a surveyor is trying to give free legal advise. They want to be paid to tell the client the same thing.
Refer him to the section in your standards that state that no one can have any influence on your work product, right after you'll consider it, when he puts it in writing.
The "take the damn note off" would have put me on the offensive and he wouldn't have liked the outcome.
The cool thing is now that you know this. So the next time he calls you on the carpet, take the handy dandy iPhone and have it recording when you walk in. Then, when he asks you to do this again, you can simply forward the message to the bar association with a complaint form.
> The "take the damn note off" would have put me on the offensive and he wouldn't have liked the outcome.
>
I suspect that feeling would be reciprocal once the dust had settled and you had a chance to check your mail.
I'm going to start calling you Charles - Charles Bronson.
> Regardless, the attorney calls me in today and tells me to remove my note, it's not a statement of fact it's a statement of opinion. I tell him the entire piece of paper is a statement of my opinion.
Agreed 100%. Your a professional and expert and you are providing your expert opinion.
> I simply told him I wasn't removing the note, and not to address me in that manner and I left.
Perfect response. Attorneys work by intimidation. Don't show fear; they can smell it.
> What I have thought of doing is removing the note, but putting a disclaimer that said note was removed at the request of said attorney.
When you do that, write down the note verbatim what the note said. (LOL) I say don't do it. You are making a report of your findings.
> Also, can you file a complaint about attorneys that threaten not to pay, or use threatening tone and manner. Isn't that unprofessional?
It's unprofessional for sure. But I think that the attorneys are in a unique position of speaking as a mouthpiece for their respective clients. For them, to work in a prejudice way on the behalf of their client and intimidating anyone who might not be in the best interest of his side, is doing their job. Much different than a professional, who is sworn to be fair and unbiased. Your job is to keep your cool and not let the attorney get you angry.
> Regarding statements on plats, I just haven't found that they really mean that much. Your mileage may (and apparently has) vary(ied).
Well, maybe I survey in a different Texas universe, but there is a wide variety of statements that I put on plats that I consider to be essential. You may bury the same information in a note somewhere in the fine print, but usually I think it's better in the certificate itself.
> Read the article at the following address about the statement "true & correct"
That surveyor bought the liability that he did because he made an absolute guarantee in the form of the statement : "this plat of survey carries our absolute guarantee for accuracy." The problem wasn't that his map was a true and correct representation of his survey, it was that his "absolute guarantee" was without limits and so extended to third parties with whom he had no contract.
Kent,
I totally agree w/ you regarding notes on recorded subdivision plats or surveys by others. There are a group of crazy notes required by governments that seem to generally pass on obligations from the government entity to the future lot owners or in some way, in my opinion, have what I call "passive takings" in the form of building lines, easements, etc. I have to pay attention to these in order to determine who is responsible for what, the entity that I work for or the landowner. We don't work on private property without approval from whatever powers that be and generally not until the County DA has said that whatever it is isn't illegal. That includes "private" subdivisions. Plus, other folks surveys often have helpful hints in the notes if nothing else.
Regarding certifications, luckily I don't deal w/ lawyers, other than the County DA, or BS certifications "required" by others. I sign, seal, and date the survey sketch, boundary description, etc...that's it. The items which you say that you usually put in a "certification", I put those items in notes on the survey, description, etc. Based on experience, I have a standard set of notes that I created over the years from all of the BS "certifications" sent to me by knuckle head lawyers, title companies, and others. Off the top of my head, they include basis of bearing, vertical datum if needed, w/ or w/out a title commitment plus any numbers, letters, dates, or hieroglyphics associated w/ said commitment, fronts on a dedicated right-of-way or not, etc.
If it makes you feel any better, and it probably won't, just to keep everyone awake I sign all of my surveys, etc. in a colored ink, crimp seal all that are possible, and fold them up real tight like most cities require. It's kinda tough to fake an original if you jack w/ it enough.
Also, there is a note as to the color of ink and the crimp seal. B-)
edit: regarding the original question regarding the lawyer...tell him to pound sand, he ain't got no say in the matter
