Agenda

Webinar instructions will be emailed before the date of the webinar.

Please log into the webinar 15 – 30 minutes before start time.

Thursday, January 12, 2022
8:30 am – 4:00 pm CST (including a 60-min. break)

 

Agenda
Identifying, Classifying and Locating Private Easements
What is and is not an easement
Reviewing Texas 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

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

Avoiding, Identifying and Resolving Ethical Issues in Land and Water Transactions
Private property rights vs. public rights
Community/local control of land and water resources
Environmental preservation of land and water

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
Examing recent adverse possession cases

Understanding Groundwater Rights
Ownership of groundwater
Regulation of groundwater rights
Obtaining groundwater rights
Current issues in groundwater rights

 

 

Webinar Instructions
All attendees must log-on through their own email – attendees may not watch together if they wish to earn continuing education credit. HalfMoon Education Inc. must be able to prove attendance if either the attendee or HalfMoon Education Inc. is audited.

Certificates of completion can be downloaded in PDF form upon passing a short quiz. A link to the quiz will be sent to each qualifying attendee immediately after the webinar. The certificate can be downloaded from the Results page of the quiz upon scoring 80% or higher.

Webinars are presented via GoToWebinar, an easy-to-use application that can be run on most systems and tablets. Instructions and login information will be provided in an email sent close to the date of the webinar. It is highly recommended that you download, install and test the application before the webinar begins by clicking on the link in the email.

GoToWebinar App requirements:
Windows 7 – 10 or Mac OSX Mavericks (10.9) – macOS Catalina (10.15)

Web Browser:
The two most recent version of the following browsers:
Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge
Internet Explorer v11 (or later) with Flash enabled

Internet connection: Minimum of 1Mbps       Hardware: 2GB RAM or more

For more information, visit the Support section at www.gotowebinar.com

Credits

Professional Engineers:
6.0 PDHs (Includes 1.0 Ethics Hour)

Land Surveyors:
6.0 PDHs (Includes 1.0 Ethics Hour)

Attorneys:
6.0 CLE Hours (Includes 1.0 Ethics Hour)

Landmen:
6.0 CEUs (Including 1.0 Ethics Credit)

 

Continuing Education Credit Information
This webinar is open to the public and is designed to qualify for 6.0 PDHs, including 1.0 ethics hour, for professional engineers and land surveyors in Texas. The Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors does not pre-approve any courses or activities.

This webinar offers 6.0 CLE hours to Texas attorneys and paralegals, including 1.0 ethics hour for attorneys. HalfMoon Education is an accredited CLE provider in the state of Texas and this course has been approved by the State Bar of Texas for 6.0 CLE hours.

This webinar offers 6.0 Recertification Credits to certified Landmen. The American Association of Professional Landmen has approved this course for 5.0 RL recertification credits and 1.0 ethics credit for a total of 6.0 credits.

Attendance will be monitored, and attendance certificates will be available after the webinar for those who attend the entire course and score a minimum 80% on the quiz that follows the course (multiple attempts allowed).

Speakers

Paul D. Barkhurst

Barkhurst & Hinojosa, P.C.

Mr. Barkhurst has extensive litigation experience in business and real estate disputes. He has developed a special concentration in the area of eminent domain, representing governmental entities as well as landowners in numerous lawsuits. He has successfully represented numerous owners in ranch power line takings. Mr. Barkhurst also represents governmental entities in construction disputes, and he has represented contractors and subcontractors in private disputes. Mr. Barkhurst has a B.A. degree, with honors, from Southwest Texas State University and a J.D. degree, magna cum laude, from Texas Tech University, and he is a former USAF Captain and F-111 Aviator. 

Clint L. Buck

Clint L. Buck Branscomb Law
Mr. Buck received a B.A. in Music and Sociology from Austin College in 2007 and a J.D. from Texas Tech University School of Law in 2011. He has practiced law in a variety of fields since his admission to the State Bar of Texas in 2011 and is currently a member in the litigation department of Branscomb Law in San Antonio, Texas. He centers his practice on real estate litigation and has represented clients in title and boundary disputes, groundwater rights matters, rate-change cases at the PUC, and breach of contract and fraud cases involving sales of real estate. 

Kyle Hlavinka

Attorney at Marrs Ellis & Hodge LLP

Kyle Hlavinka is a civil litigation associate focusing on eminent domain and probate litigation matters. Kyle grew up on a farm in East Bernard, Texas, a small town west of Houston, where his family still grows rice, corn, and cotton. His interest in eminent domain began when HSC Pipeline Partnership, LLC took his family’s farmland to build a pipeline. During law school, Kyle took a course in eminent domain and private property rights and was able to follow his family’s case all the way up to the Texas Supreme Court, where they secured a favorable ruling for landowners regarding valuation in condemnation cases. See Hlavinka v. HSC Pipeline Partnership, LLC. Understandably, Kyle is passionate about helping farmers and ranchers in the State of Texas. He has spoken on his family’s case in front of CLE International’s Houston Eminent Domain Conference and the Eminent Domain Section of the Austin Bar Association. Kyle has also spoken at town halls and guest lectured at the University of St. Thomas.

Justin Hodge

Justin Hodge Marrs Ellis & Hodge LLP
Mr. Hodge is a trial lawyer who represents Texas landowners in condemnation, eminent-domain, and real-estate lawsuits.  He has handled complex condemnation and eminent-domain cases throughout the State of Texas.  Mr. Hodge has appeared in condemnation and eminent-domain lawsuits and he has defended landowners against the Texas Attorney General’s office, pipeline companies, electric transmission line companies, school districts, cities, and counties.  He is passionate about Texas property rights.  Mr. Hodge has testified on Texas condemnation and eminent domain reform on behalf of Texas landowners in front of both the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas Senate.  He also writes a weekly blog at TexasCondemnation.com.  Mr. Hodge is currently an adjunct professor at University of Houston School of Law where he teaches a course on eminent domain. 

Joe W. Stuckey

Attorney at Law in Rosharon
Joe W. Stuckey practices primarily in corporate, real estate, and environmental law, including transactional work and litigation. He has a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University and J.D. and L.L.M. degrees from the University of Houston Law Center. Mr. Stuckey is admitted to the practice of law in all Texas courts, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and the U.S. Claims Court. He is also licensed in Texas as a professional engineer and a registered public land surveyor.

Graham Taylor

Attorney at Marrs Ellis & Hodge LLP

Graham Taylor is an associate attorney representing clients in civil litigation and Texas eminent domain matters. Mr. Taylor earned his law degree from the University of Houston Law Center in 2018. During his second year, Mr. Taylor earned the Lex Award for the highest grade in his legal writing course and clerked with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, where he worked on complex medical fraud cases. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of St. Thomas (TX) in 2015 with a B.A. in Political Science and with distinction as the Outstanding Student in Political Science. During his undergraduate career, Mr. Taylor was captain of the mock trial team and president of the University of St. Thomas chapter of the National Political Science Honor Society, Pi Sigma Alpha.  Mr. Taylor is licensed in Texas and a member of the Houston Bar Association (HBA) and the Houston Young Lawyers Association (HYLA).