New Hampshire prescriptive easement trial attorney: 11-day courtroom victory for Creeden & Day
- Keith Diaz
- Oct 27
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 28
New Hampshire prescriptive easement trial attorney Keith F. Diaz of Apis Law secured an 11-day trial win for Creeden & Day, preserving beach access, stabilizing dock rights, and clarifying shoreline rights to Lake Sunapee. ----> CONTACT APIS LAW
The short version—what we proved and why it mattered:
In an 11-day bench trial, I represented Creeden and Day. I proved a prescriptive easement over a contested shoreline corridor—preserving valuable beach access on Lake Sunapee and protecting the clients’ right to access and use their dock. This wasn’t a paper win; it was a ground-truth, fact-heavy victory that shows exactly how a New Hampshire prescriptive easement attorney builds and wins a real estate easement case at trial.
• We established a prescriptive easement—continuous, open and notorious, adverse use for 20 years —over a path leading to the beach and dock area.
• The court credited maps, photos, surveys, witness timelines, and neighbor testimony showing long-standing, non-permissive use.
• The result preserved shoreline access, stabilized dock rights, and brought clarity to the parties’ rights to use Lake Sunapee along the water’s edge.
• Translation: our clients keep using the same route to the beach and dock, and everyone finally knows where the legal lines are.
A prescriptive easement, told like a shoreline story
Picture a footpath across sand. One set of footprints might vanish with the tide. But decades of daily steps—families carrying kayaks, kids hauling floaties, year-round maintenance, even winter access —leave a track that no storm can erase. That’s the logic behind a prescriptive easement: regular, visible, and non-permissive use, long enough that the law recognizes the pathway as a legal right.
In our case, the “path” wasn’t just literal sand. It was a consistent corridor from upland to shoreline—used to reach a beach and dock—that neighbors had seen and understood for years. We used photos, seasonal routines, and credible witnesses whose memories lined up like survey pins.
What a New Hampshire prescriptive easement attorney must prove
At trial, the elements are straightforward on paper and unforgiving in practice. In New Hampshire, a prescriptive easement generally requires use that is:
1. Continuous for twenty years.
2. Open and notorious (not secret or hidden — the defendant can see it).
3. Adverse and under a claim of right (not by the defendant's permission).
4. Definite and specific (a corridor you can draw on a plan, not a vague “somewhere over there”).
The burden is on the party claiming the right. A good prescriptive easement trial lawyer does two things relentlessly: (1) turns human routines into admissible proof, and (2) locks that proof to the land with objective anchors—old photographs, surveys, site measurements, tree lines, retaining walls, stone steps, dock pilings, and grade changes that time can’t easily erase.
Littoral rights, dock rights, and the shoreline corridor—what the judgment clarifies
Shorefront cases add a second layer: littoral rights (rights of owners along ocean or lake shores) and dock rights (use and placement consistent with local and state frameworks).
Key point: a New Hampshire prescriptive easement attorney will separate the questions—
• Do you have a right of passage to the water (the easement)?
• Once there, what do your shoreline rights allow—swimming, tending a dock, loading a boat?
Our 11-day trial victory aligned these pieces.
Evidence a New Hampshire prescriptive easement trial attorney uses to win prescriptive easements
Trials are won in the details. Here’s the blueprint we executed:
Building the timeline
We built a year-by-year story: who used the beach path, when the dock went in each season, who carried equipment, when maintenance was done, and how neighbors observed the same corridor and beach being used over and over.
Turning memories into maps
Human memory is powerful, but courts want coordinates. We tied testimony to surveys, aerials, and photo metadata. We showed that the route didn’t meander randomly; it stayed within a predictable band—just like a well-worn hiking trail.
Defeating “permission”
If the use was permissive, there’s no prescriptive easement. We confronted permission claims head-on: What was said? When? To whom? Was it written? Was it consistent with how the owners behaved (signage, gates, licenses)? We demonstrated that the use looked, felt, and operated like a right—not a favor.
Marking the corridor
Courts dislike vagueness. We gave the judge a corridor with a beginning, middle, and end—from upland, over specific features, to the beach and dock interface—so the final order could be enforced without guesswork.
Practical lessons for shoreline owners and abutters
• Document the ordinary. Take photos each season. Your everyday dock installs, kayak carries, and maintenance runs are prescriptive easement gold when disputes arise.
• Map your habits. Mark the patterns of use on a sketch now; rely on a survey later.
• Permission is a legal switch. If you are the landowner and truly intend permission, write it and reserve the right to revoke. If you are the user and believe you have a right, act consistently with that right (without escalating conflict).
• Mind the regulations. A prescriptive easement is not a permit to ignore shoreland rules. Littoral and dock rights can remain subject to permitting frameworks.
• When in doubt, get counsel early. A New Hampshire prescriptive easement attorney can turn years of routine use into a cohesive evidentiary record before a dispute hardens.
FAQs answered by a New Hampshire prescriptive easement trial attorney (beach access, dock rights, littoral rights)
What is a prescriptive easement in plain English?
It’s a legal right to keep using a specific path because you (and predecessors) have used it openly, continuously, and without permission for long enough.
How long is “long enough” in New Hampshire?
Two decades of consistent use. Courts look for long, unbroken patterns—not occasional holiday shortcuts.
Does friendly neighborliness count as permission?
Not usually. Permission is a legal concept, not a vibe. To defeat a prescriptive easement, owners need evidence of granted permission or control (licenses, posted rules, seasonal permissions).
Can a prescriptive easement include access to a beach or dock?
Yes, if the corridor to the shore is proven with the required elements. The easement is a right of passage; once you reach the water, your littoral rights and dock rights are governed by separate legal and regulatory rules.
What evidence persuades a judge?
Decades of photos, surveys, aerial imagery, maintenance logs, seasonal routines, neighbor testimony, and consistent physical features (stone steps, edging, vegetation breaks) that align to a precise corridor.
If the other side puts up a new fence, is it over?
Not necessarily. A sudden blockade can become part of the proof that your use was adverse and recognized—especially if you promptly assert rights rather than acquiesce.
Can a prescriptive easement be moved or narrowed?
Courts prefer definite, enforceable corridors. Minor adjustments for safety or practicality sometimes happen, but the remedy matches the historic use: as used, so defined.
Do I need a lawyer for a prescriptive easement dispute?
If the corridor, beach access, dock rights, or littoral rights matter to your property’s value or your family’s use, a New Hampshire prescriptive easement attorney can make the difference between winning a defined right and living with uncertainty.
Why this trial win matters
Easement fights often become identity fights: who we are on the shore, how we use our homes, what our families do each summer. An 11-day prescriptive easement trial is not about clever buzzwords. It’s about relentlessly connecting lived reality to legal elements until the only reasonable conclusion is the one we achieved: a defined, enforceable corridor that preserves beach access, stabilizes dock rights, and clarifies littoral rights for the long term.
If you’re facing a shoreline or prescriptive easement dispute—pathways, beach access, dock rights, or littoral rights—I’m here to help as your New Hampshire prescriptive easement attorney. Let’s turn your day-to-day shoreline use into the trial-ready record a court will trust.
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