Professional Practice, Ethics, and Colorado Law
Professional Practice, Ethics, and Colorado Law
This domain tests licensure, signing and sealing, record duties, and the judgment expected of a professional land surveyor in Colorado.
Licensure and responsibility
- CRS Title 12, Article 120 governs surveyors; the State Board of Licensure for Architects, Professional Engineers, and Professional Land Surveyors administers it.
- Practice requires licensure; unlicensed practice and aiding it are violations, and the exemptions (federal employees, narrow engineering or utility work) are interpreted narrowly.
- You may seal only work performed under your responsible charge - your direct supervision and control. Sealing a plat prepared by someone you did not supervise is a violation regardless of who asks.
Statutory and record duties
- Colorado land survey plat statutes (CRS 38-51-101 et seq.) set content and filing requirements with the county clerk and recorder; Board rules carry minimum standards for boundary surveys.
- Disturbing or removing a survey monument without authorization is unlawful; when you find a disturbed monument, document it and report it rather than quietly replacing it.
- Retain field notes and computation files; they are the evidence of what you did and when.
Ethics in practice
- Competence: decline work outside your expertise rather than learn at the client expense.
- Conflict of interest: disclose relationships; no contingent compensation for a boundary opinion or testimony.
- Confidentiality: client information stays confidential except where law requires disclosure.
- Report violations of the licensure act to the Board.
Worked example
A developer asks you to omit a recorded 15-ft drainage easement from a final plat to simplify financing, and to sign the plat drawings prepared by an unlicensed technician in his office.
Refuse both. The easement is a matter of record and its omission misrepresents the property; the lawful route is a formal vacation through the jurisdiction. Signing work you did not supervise violates the responsible-charge rule. Document the request, offer the lawful alternatives, and do not seal the drawing.
Traps
- Sealing a plat as a favor to a client or employer.
- Accepting a fee contingent on a favorable boundary opinion.
- Treating a consulting role as a shield from responsibility for the sealed product.
- Ignoring a disturbed monument because replacing it is easier than reporting it.