A peer's website

Wow, that's..... really sad.

Those words seem self lauding and unethical. A rather bold thing to say, at the very least!

He would get more agreement if he said "some surveyors" instead of "most surveyors", but that's still not something to put on his public web site. Talk yourself up, not others down.

The Code of Ethics of both PLSO (Oregon) and LSAW (Washington) includes passages about issuing public statements only in an objective manner, which the website in question seems to violate. While this code of ethics transgression may not be actionable by the state board, it certainly is not cool.

I appreciate that the courts may often seek an equitable solution in many affairs but am genuinely interested in hearing what others have to say about the role of a surveyor in putting forward "equitable" solutions.

I would think that putting forward a legally defensible and sound solution would be the first priority, not to say that I do not see a role for the LS to do some problem solving along the lines of boundary line adjustments, not upsetting the apple cart etc.

I do not like this newfangled reply window, can't read what I am replying to while writing it out.

I agree. I have seen a few clear cut boundary calls ruined by a judge that only wanted to split the difference on the issue instead of finding the correct calls to hold. If money were no object these cases could go up the chain for appeal but often get left at the bad decision. FWIW, the person who has that text on their website should at least be reported to the local board with an ethics complaint.

I'd be curious to see a list of all of the surveyors this person has met. I'm sure this person wouldn't want to come across as, you know, a jackass for making such claims without actual evidence.

I appreciate that the courts may often seek an equitable solution in many affairs but am genuinely interested in hearing what others have to say about the role of a surveyor in putting forward “equitable” solutions.

Dunno what the surveyor referenced in the OP really means, but there is undoubtedly a non-trivial number of surveyors that "stake the deed lines" and then bug out, ignoring all other evidence, the bulk of which may point to a more equitable solution.

They are usually the same ones that turn themselves inside out to avoid having a conversation with clients when they really should - when there are discrepancies among the evidence that require more than filing a record of survey with a regurgitated calculated boundary.

From a very good article on the subject:

...surveyors often neglect to recognize that when considered in the latter manner, this evidence can provide proper guidance when “trying” to resolve a particularly intractable boundary property. Rather, they will harken back to their comfort with mathematics and concoct a solution that - relative to the long-standing lines of possession is entirely irrational - but provides a clear means by which they can justify their opinion: Math!

You can read it for yourself here.

https://plsssurveying.com/vetting-the-surveyor/

The peer in question contacted me beause he found my tagged rebars from a "recent" survey and wanted to know why I had ignored the original monuments. I asked if the pins were painted red and he said they were not painted, so early this morning I drove all the way across town to see for myself. They are my tags, on rebars painted red, which means from the 1980s when I worked for Cella Barr Associates. That's about as far from "recent" as you can get. I told him we sold CBA in 1999 to Stantec and he would have to ask Stantec for the records.

I didn't waste my time telling him that you really have to know the history of surveying in this area, rebars painted red invariably means CBA, and given the time frame my pins are probably the originals, not the later untagged pins he found adjacent. I also didn't bother to tell him that the Stantec surveyor sent all the records to the dump in 2000 so they are gone forever.

So if I'm reading between the lines... he says most surveyors "find problems", while he fabricates problems. Big improvement.

you really have to know the history of surveying in this area

Amen. I got licensed about eight months after moving to my current region, and I think it was about 1.5-2 years before I really felt comfortable stamping and signing records of survey. I already had 16 years of experience across four states, but there are critical things that one must know about their local area before they can really be confident in their boundary analysis...

.....it's also why I have an inherent mistrust of surveyors licensed in a dozen states. I don't see how someone could reliably keep up with more than a few states at any given time, especially considering that within any one state there are distinct conventions and regional differences in how surveys were performed over the years. There might be a few who can keep up, but most of the ones that I have met were basically "collectors" of licenses. (Plus I really don't need to pay all those licensure upkeep fees or navigate all those CEU requirements. Ouch.)

I mean....it's an improvement for him. He can now pontificate and bloviate at his client even more about how he's The One True Surveyor™, and feel justified in his characterization of the rest of us.

Personally, I like finding problems rather than missing them, so I can solve them if at all possible.

My brother in processing: the client just wanted you to stake the line so they can put a fence in...