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50 states + DC

Easement law, state by state

The 10 Wave-1 states carry verified prescriptive periods, necessity routes, and per-doctrine statute citations. The rest are staged for Wave 2 and Wave 3 — shown here for discoverability, but we do not publish their state-specific figures until they are verified.
Common-law-driven (42)Statutory overlay (5)Hybrid (4)Ring = Wave-1 (full data)Browse all states

Reading the framework labels

What the tints mean (and what they don't)

These describe how a state's easement law is structured. They are never a quality ranking — procedural complexity helps some owners and burdens others.

  • Common-law-driven

    Most easement doctrine is judge-made; the controlling rule for a dispute is the case law, not a statute.

  • Statutory overlay

    Common-law doctrine plus a distinctive statute — often a statutory way-of-necessity or private-road procedure layered on top.

  • Hybrid

    A blend: significant common-law doctrine alongside one or more codified procedures or periods.