California Surveyors Forums

Here is an interesting opinion. I am working with a civil engineer and we believe the engineer working for the other side made a number of serious errors.; they are quite obvious. Apparently the court process grants immunity from meeting the requirements for licensed engineers and presumably surveyors. In this case, we believe the other engineer made a number of false statements. It sort of makes it a Wild West process.

Interesting! Why is a "Enforcement Analyst" making that call? I thought that was one of the purposes of the board(?). On the positive side, the response time was only days! Jp

Indeed!

The last time it took ten years to get a reply. yes, 10 years.

A "declaration"? Not even a report? Why would this get submitted to the Board? Even if it was a report, it would not be a "civil engineering" report per 6735, but an "expert witness report." Perhaps the engineer in question has some strong opinions in support of the case. Weak attempt legal team, weak.

I wrote a reply to this yesterday and thought I posted it. But poof, it's gone.

Redo:

I'm certain that Ms. Grabowski did not form the opinion for the Board. Most likely, it was given to her by licensed Board staff after consulting with DCA counsel. The main job of an enforcement analyst is to be the BPELSG point of contact for all other parties involved with a complaint.

I understand the reluctance of BPELSG to interpret that a Declaration within a court filing be considered an "engineering" (or "surveying") document subject to 6735 (or 8761) for exactly the reasons they state in their letter.

A Declaration typically is a brief description of one's qualifications and/or position, identification of the documentary/map evidence reviewed and or provided, and identification of any exhibits, reports, etc. that the declarant has prepared and provided. A Declaration typically does not contain any direct opinions on the evidence. So it's a stretch to interpret a Declaration as requiring a stamp. If I sign Christmas cards or write a love letter to my wife, should I stamp those too?

Having said that, I submitted a Declaration a week or two ago and did apply my stamp simply because I didn't know how the Board would interpret it. I'm now pleased to see that they applied good sense to the question.

Although the court has the authority to accept anyone as an expert, regardless of licensing status, If I were submitting an Expert's Report, I would put my stamp on it as it would contain my expert opinion (for which I am licensed). If the report was only for submittal to the court, then the court won't care if the Board sees it as a violation if it lacks a stamp. However, a report (or exhibit map for that matter) might end up getting used for some other purpose once it's out of my hands, so that puts stamping maps & reports intended for legal proceedings into a grey area, IMO.