The Uniform Easement Relocation Act allows the owner of real estate burdened by an easement to obtain a court order to relocate the easement if the relocation does not materially impair the utility of the easement to the easement holder, or the physical condition, use, or value of the benefited property. The burdened property owner must file a civil action, give other potentially affected real-property interest owners notice, and bear all the costs of relocation. For more information about the Uniform Easement Relocation Act, please contact Legislative Counsel Jane Sternecky at (312) 450-6622 or jsternecky@uniformlaws.org.
This new act will fill a gap in the law regarding the execution of certain estate planning documents, including trusts and powers of attorney. The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) authorizes the electronic execution of bilateral contracts if the parties to a transaction agree. The Uniform Electronic Wills Act (UEWA) authorizes the testator of a will and witnesses to execute a will in electronic form. However, trusts, powers of attorney, and some other types of estate planning documents fell into a legal grey area where the law governing electronic execution was ambiguous. The Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act clarifies that these documents may also be executed in electronic form. The new act was drafted to complement UEWA and could be adopted by a state simultaneously with that act to comprehensively authorize the electronic execution of wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and several other types of common estate planning documents.
The Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act (UELMA) establishes an outcomes-based, technology-neutral framework for providing online legal material with the same level of trustworthiness traditionally provided by publication in a law book. UELMA requires that official electronic legal material be: (1) authenticated, by providing a method to determine that it is unaltered; (2) preserved, either in electronic or print form; and (3) accessible, for use by the public on a permanent basis. For more information about enacting UELMA please contact ULC Legislative Counsel Libby Snyder at 312-450-6619 or lsnyder@uniformlaws.org.
The Uniform Electronic Recordation of Custodial Interrogations Act (UERCIA) requires that law enforcement electronically record the entirety of a custodial interrogation. The act leaves it to the individual states to decide where and for what types of crimes this mandate applies, as well as the means by which recording must be done. UERCIA also includes a number of exceptions that excuse non-recording. For more information about enacting UERCIA, please contact Legislative Counsel Jane Sternecky at (312) 450-6622 or jsternecky@uniformlaws.org.
The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) establishes the legal equivalence of electronic records and signatures with paper writings and manually-signed signatures, removing barriers to electronic commerce. For more information about enacting this uniform act please contact Legislative Program Director Kaitlin Wolff at (312) 450-6615 or kwolff@uniformlaws.org.
The Uniform Electronic Wills Act permits testators to execute an electronic will and allows probate courts to give electronic wills legal effect. Most documents that were traditionally printed on paper can now be created, transferred, signed, and recorded in electronic form. Since 2000 the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) and a similar federal law, E-SIGN have provided that a transaction is not invalid solely because the terms of the contract are in an electronic format. But UETA and E-SIGN both contain an express exception for wills, which, because the testator is deceased at the time the document must be interpreted, are subject to special execution requirements to ensure validity and must still be executed on paper in most states. Under the new Electronic Wills Act, the testator’s electronic signature must be witnessed contemporaneously (or notarized contemporaneously in states that allow notarized wills). States will have the option to include language that allows remote witnessing. The act will also address recognition of electronic wills executed under the law of another state. For a generation that is used to banking, communicating, and transacting business online, the Uniform Electronic Wills Act will allow online estate planning while maintaining safeguards to help prevent fraud and coercion. For further information about the Uniform Electronic Wills Act, please contact ULC Chief Counsel Benjamin Orzeske at (312) 450-6621 or borzeske@uniformlaws.org.
The Uniform Emergency Volunteer Health Practitioners Act (UEVHPA) allows state governments during a declared emergency to give reciprocity to other states’ licensees so that covered individuals may provide emergency health services without meeting the disaster state’s licensing requirements. For more information about enacting UEVHPA, please contact ULC Legislative Counsel Lindsay Beaver at (312) 450-6618 or lbeaver@uniformlaws.org.
The Model Eminent Domain Code (MEDC) is a procedural act providing comprehensive rules for the conduct of eminent domain actions, including preliminary negotiations, condemnation authorizations, and compensation.
The Model Employee and Student Online Privacy Protection Act (MESOPPA) addresses both employers’ access to employees’ social media and other online accounts as well as post-secondary educational institutions’ access to students’ similar online accounts. For more information about enacting MESOPPA, please contact ULC Legislative Counsel Libby Snyder at 312-450-6619 or lsnyder@uniformlaws.org.
The Model Employment Termination Act (META) protects employees from wrongful discharge by requiring that dismissals be made for "good cause."
The Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (UEFJA) provides a simplified way of enforcing judgments entered in another state, implementing full faith and credit.
The Model Entity Transactions Act (META) allows conversion of one kind of business organization to another, or the merger of two or more business organizations into one organization. For further information about META, please contact ULC Legislative Counsel Kari Bearman at 312-450-6617 or kbearman@uniformlaws.org.
The Uniform Environmental Covenants Act (UECA) provides clear rules for a perpetual real estate interest – an environmental covenant – to restrict and regulate the use of contaminated property when real estate is transferred from one owner to another. For further information about enacting UECA, please contact ULC Chief Counsel Benjamin Orzeske at (312) 450-6621 or borzeske@uniformlaws.org.
The Uniform Estate Tax Apportionment Act (UETAA) provides fair procedures for apportioning the burden of estate taxes among beneficiaries of a decedent's estate. This act is incorporated into the Uniform Probate Code as Article 3, Part 9A. For more information about enacting UETAA, please contact ULC Chief Counsel Benjamin Orzeske at (312) 450-6621 or borzeske@uniformlaws.org.
The Model Rules of Evidence simplify and codify the rules pertaining to what may be introduced into evidence in any civil or criminal trial in state court. The model rules closely follow the Federal Rules of Evidence.
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