Part 1: Basics and preliminaries
Rationale and history of adverse possession
Basic pleading issues
Part 2: The traditional elements
Hostility and claim of right
Color of title
Exclusivity
Actual possession
Open and notorious possession
Continuous possession
Adversely holding the property for the required time period
Part 3: Other potential elements
Peaceful occupancy
Cultivation, improvement, substantial enclosures, ouster, and other odds and ends
Tacking
Paying real estate taxes : a potential shortcut and, in certain states, a requirement
Known and visible lines and boundaries
Part 4: Defenses and disruptions to adverse possession claims
Disrupting a claimant's continuous use claim
Disproving hostility
Statute of Frauds as a defense
Unclean hands may be a defense to adverse possession by claim of right
Statute of limitations and laches as defenses
Affidavits of interruption and Torrens title
Part 5: Special kinds of adverse possession
Private parties adversely possessing government property
Government adversely possessing private property
Terminating an easement through adverse possession
A former tenant or current co-owner can become an adverse possessor
Mining rights and water rights
Part 6: Workarounds
Easement by prescription
Deed reformation
Obtaining the value of improvements
Boundary by acquiescence, agreement, and practical location
Boundary be estoppel and easement by estoppel
Presumed grant
Part 7: Miscellaneous matters
Bench trial versus jury trial
Burdens and presumptions
Potential objections to testimony
De minimis issues, nonstructural encroachments, and law mowing
Champerty
Adverse possession in the wake of a tax lien foreclosure
Attorneys' fees
Appendix A: Sample complaints
Appendix B: Sample questions for depositions.