Agenda
Registration: 8:00 – 8:30 am
Morning Session: 8:30 – 11:45 am
Lunch (On your own): 11:45 am – 12:45 pm
Afternoon Session: 12:45 – 4:30 pm
Locating Land Boundaries on Paper (And on the Ground)
Interpreting land descriptions
• Metes and bounds
• Lot and block
• Dos and don’ts for writing descriptions
Applying principles of boundary location
• Collecting and evaluating all types of boundary evidence:
documents, physical evidence, people, surveys
• Locating the described land on a map
• Locating the described land on the ground
• Understanding and using geographic information systems (GIS)
Solving land description and boundary location problems
Identifying, Classifying and Locating Easements
What is and is not an easement
Reviewing state law on easements
Creating easements: easements by necessity,
easements by use, written easements
Identifying critical distinctions between easements in gross,
easements appurtenant and prescriptive easements
Maintaining easements
Knowing when and how to terminate easements
Obstructing use of easements and determining remedies for obstruction
Defining Trespass and Adverse Possession
Defining trespass
Reviewing the history of adverse possession
Maintaining a claim for adverse possession
• Statute of limitations
• Elements of a claim
Defending against a claim for adverse possession
Examining recent adverse possession cases
Understanding Riparian and Water Rights
History and development of riparian rights
Determining land boundaries near the water line
Determining access rights to surface waters
Determining rights to groundwater
Complying with regulations restricting access to and
use of surface water and groundwater
Understanding Utility Easements and Rights of Way
Current law on utility rights of way
• Federal laws and regulations
• State laws and regulations
Types of utilities affected
• Electric, water, natural gas, telecommunications,
satellite communications
Basis for and definition of the easement
Encroachments and interferences
Maintenance
Environmental issues
Condemnation law
Current issues involving utility easements
Credits
Illinois Attorneys
6.5 Illinois CLE Hours
7.5 Wisconsin CLE Hours
Professional Engineers &
Land Surveyors
6.5 PDHs
Architects
6.5 HSW Contact Hours
6.5 AIA HSW Learning Units
Continuing Education Credit Information
This seminar is open to the public and is approved by the Illinois MCLE Board for 6.5 general CLE hours for attorneys. The Wisconsin Board of Bar Examiners has approved this course for 7.5 CLE hours for attorneys.
This course offers 6.5 PDHs to Illinois professional engineers and land surveyors. Educators and courses are not subject to preapproval in Illinois.
Engineers and land surveyors seeking continuing education credit in other states will be able to claim the hours earned at this seminar, in most cases. Refer to specific state rules to determine eligibility.
This course offers architects 6.5 HSW contact hours. It is approved by the American Institute of Architects for 6.5 HSW Learning Units (Sponsor No. J885).
Attendance will be monitored, and attendance certificates will be available after the seminar for most individuals who complete the entire event. Attendance certificates not available at the seminar will be mailed to participants within fifteen business days.
Speakers
J. Cole Helfrich
Principal Land Surveyor, Koru Group PLLC, in Wheaton, ILMr. Helfrich has been principal land surveyor with Craig R. Knoche & Associates, P.C. and its successor Koru Group PLLC in the Chicago area for the last 30 years. Mr. Helfrich first picked up a plumb bob in 1971 for Webster & Associates. From tape-and-transit to GPS, mortgage surveys to shopping centers, he has his seal on billions of dollars of commercial, residential and institutional developments and transactions in 23 counties in Illinois together with consulting and managing projects in 15 other states. Mr. Helfrich has enjoyed working with countless prominent developers, attorneys and other professionals in the field and the office. His specialties include real estate law, boundaries and boundary law, easements, rights-of-way and other encumbrances and servitudes, statutory and common-law plats, ALTA surveys, topography, building and site layout, construction- and project-management as well as land development consulting. He has presented classes and co-written manuals with the Illinois Institute For Continuing Legal Education along with classes at the University of Illinois and HalfMoon Education. Mr. Helfrich is a member of the National Society of Professional Surveyors and the Illinois Professional Land Surveyors Association.
