Guides
Procedural guides to common easement situations
The most common easement search
A neighbor is blocking my driveway — what do I do?
The single most common easement query, mapped: was there an easement (express or implied?), and what is the procedural path to use or defend it?
Severance + access
Landlocked after a foreclosure or a parcel split
When a foreclosure or conveyance splits a parcel and leaves one part without road access, an easement by necessity (or an implied easement) often arises. Here's the procedural shape.
Scope + inverse condemnation
When a utility exceeds its easement
Tree-clearing, corridor-widening, new equipment — utility easements are read from the grant, and going beyond it can raise scope and inverse-condemnation questions.
Permissive use + posting
Recreational use and prescriptive-easement claims
Hunting, hiking, and ATV use of unimproved land can trigger prescriptive-easement claims. Permissive use and posted notices are the servient owner's defenses.
Voluntary grant + federal tax
Conservation easements and the IRC §170(h) deduction
A conservation easement is a voluntary grant. A properly structured donation can qualify for a federal charitable deduction — but the requirements are strict and heavily litigated.
The classifier logic
How the dispute-pathway map matches your situation
No black box. Here is exactly how we map a role + a state + a detail to the doctrine in play — and why we always offer both a DIY and an attorney path.
Editorial discipline
Why our citations are verified, not generated
The editorial discipline that distinguishes us from AI summaries: every statute links to a primary source, and we never publish a case name we have not checked.