WLIA 2023 Conference

Workshop 3 – Legal Issues in GIS

Presenter: Chris Dunn, GeoVelo Geospatial Forensics

Where: Kalahari Resort, 1305 Kalahari Drive Baraboo, WI 53913 United States – Marula Room

When: Wednesday, February 22, 2023 8:00 AM (CST) to 11:30 (CST


Hour 1: Geospatial Case Law:  With a special focus on YOUR personal legal liability, copyrights, contracts, open records, and more.

Hour 2: The Many Ways Geospatial People End Up in Court: 1) Making embarrassing mistakes; 2) You are the GeoExpert; 3) You made the geospatial demonstratives for court; and over twelve more ways.

Hour 3: Geofence Warrants (an emerging legal issue): Geofence warrants have proven to be an effective tool to help prosecutors and police make their case, often when no other evidence leads to a suspect. They are the latest intersection between the geospatial profession and law enforcement. In some jurisdictions prosecutors petition judges to authorize warrants which scrutinize one or more national location databases, containing location records of every citizen in the US with a smartphone.  Many legal scholars say it’s the details of how those data are obtained from the warrant, selected, processed, and then presented in court which may, or may not, offend long-established Constitutional protections found under the 4th and 5th Amendments. We’ll avoid politics in this session and focus on how a Geofence Warrant might affect you professionally.  

Q&A: I love questions and you can ask them at any time during our session.  So, please bring your questions to the conference or email them ahead of time to Chris (.) Dunn @ Geo Velo (.) com

The Obligatory Legal Disclaimers

Public Sector Disclaimer: If you work for a public sector employer your organization* already has an attorney. If what you hear or learn today differs from what your attorney says – he or she is correct, and I am wrong. *This attorney is not at all concerned with protecting your personal legal interests.

Private Sector Disclaimer: The Missouri rules of professional conduct require us to remind you that; the choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements. And I don’t want to be your attorney.