Professional Conduct and Ethics
Ethics questions on this exam test whether you can separate client loyalty from the land surveyor's overriding duties. Montana's Board rules and the profession's standard canons require honesty, competence, objectivity, confidentiality, and protection of the public.
Core duties
- Hold paramount the public safety, health, and welfare.
- Practice only within your competence and disclose limitations.
- Be truthful in reports, plats, proposals, and testimony; do not alter or conceal data.
- Keep client information confidential unless disclosure is required by law or necessary to prevent harm.
- Avoid conflicts of interest; disclose financial or personal interests that could affect judgment.
- Do not offer or accept improper gifts, bribes, or contingent compensation that compromises professional judgment.
- Do not aid unlicensed practice or allow others to use your seal.
- Report known violations to the Board when required; retaliation is itself misconduct.
Worked example
A client asks a surveyor to leave a known encroachment off a plat because it will delay a sale. The surveyor may explain options (revised layout, easement, disclosure), but must not seal a document that omits a material boundary fact. Confidentiality does not authorize misleading a buyer or concealing a public-safety issue.
Traps
The biggest trap is "the client pays me, so the client decides." Others: signing for a colleague "just this once," using an outdated seal, advertising in a false or misleading way, and treating a conflict as harmless because no one complained. The exam rewards the duty to be accurate and transparent, even when it costs the client money.