Survey Drawings altered by lawyers

Send him a nasty letter and ask him to remove your cert and signature from HIS drawing. CC the client.

I've had drawings and other products altered.
A few offices changed or left off the part of my certification that stated that I made the survey and on what date.
For a while, someone was copying my drawings and then making revisions with division boundaries and new monumentation.
When anyone contacts me and claims to have in hand my paperwork, I ask for them to send me a copy, scan, fax or best method to get that information to me.
I do this to see if it is the same as I sent out.
When I find them altered, my answer is that they have in their hand documents that are not originals and are probably forged and/or altered and does not represent my survey.
In my opinion, when that happens, they have eliminated my liability and have taken it on themselves.

paden cash, post: 431705, member: 20 wrote: Send him a nasty letter and ask him to remove your cert and signature from HIS drawing. CC the client.

CC your attorney as well.

How common? Not very in my circle. However I have had this happen and when I do see it I advise the perpetrator that their actions are not welcome and may border on fraud (in my opinion). That said, it appears that this transgression was merely to guide the viewer to a specific spot on the drawing. Something that could have been done with words, which surprises me coming from an attorney. I would have offered to provide a proper exhibit for the task at hand.

Once a drawing has left my office, I concede that there is little control that I have over what takes place with it. My experience is that my BOR will not entertain any action on my behalf unless it is by another licensee.

Ideally, they would have asked you to make any modifications to highlight any particular portions, but dealing with what you've got now:

Would it be clear to someone seeing the map for the first time that the circles were added afterwards? For instance, do they look hand drawn while the rest of your drawing looks CAD drawn, or are they a different color than the rest of the drawing?

Did their having added the circles change the info you put on the drawing in any way other than possibly obscuring portions of what's under the circles themselves and bringing attention to what's within them?

If there is no other harm or alteration to your info, assume that they were not trying to do something shady and are simply ignorant of the impropriety of adding to your drawing without authorization. Compare it to another professional taking it upon themselves to make minor alterations in an agreement the attorney prepared for a common client without consulting with the attorney. Is there a possibility that other professional, while thinking they are making a minor change, may do something that significantly impacts the meaning or effectiveness of some other provision without realizing it? Is it possible that such an alteration could create potential liabilities for the client or for the attorney? What if instead of an agreement, the document had been a report prepared by the attorney?

Explain that you understand that they were simply trying to highlight certain info on the drawing, but that the drawing is a report representing your findings & opinions, and much of the info in that report is conveyed by use of lines, arcs, and other graphic devices, like circles. Their circles, depending upon how they appear, could confuse the meanings of other info shown. It could also transfer some of the liability for what's shown on the drawing from you to whoever added to it.

You indicated that they recorded your drawing, with the added circles. I assume that what they recorded was a reduced-sized copy as an attachment to the easement document (?). If so, it's probably pretty clear that the circles were added to the drawing after issuance. But even so, let them know that you would be happy to create appropriate exhibit drawings for that specific purpose when and if a similar situation arises again.

The practice of reducing a 24x36 or even a 36x48 drawing down to 8 1/2 x 11 and adding a stamped "ATTACHMENT __" and sometimes a bold circle or two with some prominent note or label for each such circle, for purposes of including as an attachment to some recorded title document isn't all that uncommon out here. Seems that I've seen the same thing in several other parts of the country I've worked in. Those additions typically are clearly added by someone other than the drawing creator. Fortunately in CA, we have a code provision that absolves the licensee who issued the drawing from any liability arising from any unauthorized alterations. If your state has a similar statute, then you have less to be concerned about.

But of course, there's still the matter of professional etiquette. Hopefully, the explanation I mentioned above would get that point across clearly, calmly, and effectively.

To add a bit of clarification, the response I advocate here is for the limited and obvious type of alteration I described. For those that alter them in ways that AHarris described, changing lines, adding lots, or anything whereby they are intentionally removing, adding, or changing the subject info of the drawing rather than simply highlighting info, I would respond entirely differently.

Depending upon the level of offense, I would respond as either an annoyed professional insisting that they stop the practice and recall any drawings they've issued with my info on it; I might threaten to file complaints with my licensing board for their misuse of my drawing (would fall under providing services w/o a license, or if licensed - whoo boy - negligence and/or incompetence and certainly fraud), and threaten legal action, or may follow through with that; or if they are some knucklehead who is not a habitual offender but nonetheless just doesn't seem to get it, I might put on my weekend work clothes, do just enough heavy yard work to get the proper amount of dirt, sweat, cuts & scrapes, and then go pay a rather loud visit wherein I convey my displeasure in person and at high volume. Perhaps they would comply to keep 260 pounds of raging redneck from returning.

OK, the last one, probably not. But I'll keep the option open 'cause it sounds like fun.

[USER=763]@Larry Best[/USER]

I'd go here 😎

Attorney Discipline
Virgin Islands lawyers are bound by strict ethical rules in all of their professional dealings pursuant to http://www.visupremecourt.org/wfdata/files/Supreme_Court_Rule_201_to_208.pdf&apos ;">Rule 203 of the Rules of the Supreme Court. Members of the public who believe that a lawyer has engaged in misconduct should contact the Office of Disciplinary Counsel and complete a http://www.visupremecourt.org/wfData/files/professionalregulation/Complaint%20Form.pdf&apos ;">Complaint Form.

http://www.visupremecourt.org/Professional_Regulation/Attorney_Discipline/

One can only certify to what they stamped. Information added after the fact is not part of the certification.
Did they add recording information to the circles? If the recording date is after the certification date, then you have some good proof of alteration.

I would consult the range of enforceable statutes that exist which allow holding a "public castration event for entertainment purposes" and invite the offending party to be present (and participate).

It's late, and I'm on the backside of celebrating my best-ever golf score, but how did he alter your survey?Seems like he just made reference.
78 BTW

1 Mulligan

Yessssssssssssss

#iwillsurelydieinafieryaccidenttommorow

I could score higher than that..............................on only four holes.

I posted this about 4 years ago...

https://surveyorconnect.com/community/threads/un-authorized-modification-of-my-plan.211018/#post-211044

Failing to see the comparison.
Probably my bad.
If I reference, or highlight a plat, do I alter it?
I did have an architect change a setback on one of my plats once to suit his design.
Did not sort out well for the architect.
Did I mention my 78?
WOOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just before my original post, I had sent a nasty email to the offender. Turns out the easement hadn't yet been recorded. And I never saw the altered survey, just the wording that referred to "the circled areas on the As-Built Title Survey". So I think its a minor alteration.

@ Larry Best

There are no minor altercations.
To alter and/or change anything to our product is a serious offense to our way life.
Most any Realtor, banker, attorney and every day land owner would never need a surveyor again if it were legal for them to take our work and modify it to their needs and keep our signature and seal as part of the document.
Can you imagine getting a call one day and finding out that you are holding the liability for any one out there creating surveys in your name.
Last year two different surveyors contacted me for information on two separate locations where they found monuments bearing my name and license number.
They won't give me enough information for me to investigate, apparently they did not like where things were going after me knowing that had happened.
Criminal activity is never a good thing............

Would it be okay to, for instance, take a copy of a survey plat you had done for your own property and sketch where you would want to build a garage or some improvement to take to a planning office for approval? (Just curious, it's not something I am dealing with)