Looking for a good disclaimer

Since this is a legal issue, if I was doing this I would consult with an attorney.

Walt Robillard once told me that disclaimers by surveyors are next to worthless. I wonder if disclaimers by governmental agencies have more validity?

I am not sure if your concern is external liability or that others in your organization will you the data to make dangerous assumptions. Of course, both scenarios should be addressed. It would seem that there should be procedures in place or put in place as to how the data is to be used internally and if and when the data can be release externally. I see no problem with your disclaimer in general. You can call it a disclaimer or necessary metadata. To be more clear, you may state the sources used to compile the information and link to the source for each easement. I agree with Jim that a disclaimer is limited in decreasing liability.

The "disclaimer" is an attribute that will be part of the shapefile, along with hyperlinks to the recorded document. I am not too concerned with liability, as much as informing people within my organization to not blindly trust what is shown on a map. I have consulted with our attorney and she saw no issue with showing the information for internal use only, if it stated that it was informative in nature.

Locally the GIS disclaimer was rejected by a court during a dispute between a developer and the city.
The problem was over zoning, there were "errors" in the GIS, and the city tried to use the disclaimer as an out.

Bradl, post: 385887, member: 2848 wrote: Any comments are greatly appreciated, except for negative one, they are just appreciated.
Brad

Good one.

If it's a liability issue, I agree with consulting a legal expert. If you are just trying to protect people from themselves, I would suggest being more blunt. I find that most the people that use items for other than they were intended for don't even read the disclaimers; for those people I would make it short and to the point, and in legible, bold letters.

I always think back to a case where I was doing a survey and a person's outbuildings were way out of their own property. I told them that as far as I can tell his buildings were outside his line. He said "I got a survey in the house that says that they are not". He brought it out, and it was labeled as an "ILC" (which is disclaimed to be not a survey plat). Not only was it stated that it was not a survey plat, it even had a recommendation on the drawing by the surveyor recommending the owner get a boundary survey. Not only that, but it showed all of the outbuilding outside the property line on the ILC.

I just saw Bradl's last line. so here is my disclaimer when something breaks or goes wrong around here. "I was in the panhandle, so I know I didn't do it!" Yeah, it looks funny on a plat, but I didn't get in as much trouble for that as I did when I tried to send out a plat with Oklahoma labeled as Indian Territory.

I'd put in real LARGE letters at the top: For informational purposes only, data shown hereon has not been field verified.

Of course there is the standard disclaimer you may consider:

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This disclaimer if from the assessors office in the county I do most of my work in.

Regarding our GIS (Geographic information System), the San Juan County Assessor‰Ûªs Office disclaims any warranty or warranty for fitness of use for a particular purpose, expressed or implied, with respect to this data. Furthermore, the San Juan County Assessor‰Ûªs office disclaims any Responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of this data. The mapped data on this site does not constitute a legal survey. For the definitive description of real property, consult the deeds recorded in the County Clerks Office.

Monte, post: 385979, member: 11913 wrote: I just saw Bradl's last line. so here is my disclaimer when something breaks or goes wrong around here. "I was in the panhandle, so I know I didn't do it!" Yeah, it looks funny on a plat, but I didn't get in as much trouble for that as I did when I tried to send out a plat with Oklahoma labeled as Indian Territory.

Wow labeled as Indian Territory, how long have you been surveying?

Scott Ellis, post: 386000, member: 7154 wrote: Wow labeled as Indian Territory, how long have you been surveying?

I'm in my mid 40's, but there are some ideas us West Texicans just ain't ready to give up.

All data shown hereon is for general informational purposes only and is not to be relied on for legal purposes. The user shall be responsible for verifying the information contained herein.