The Uniform Parentage Act (2017) provides states with a uniform legal framework for establishing parent-child relationships. This act updates prior versions of the UPA, last revised in 2002. For further information about enacting the UPA (2017) please contact ULC Legislative Counsel Libby Snyder at (312) 450-6619 or lsnyder@uniformlaws.org.
The Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA) helps preserve family wealth passed to the next generation in the form of real property. If a landowner dies intestate, the real estate passes to the landowner’s heirs as tenants-in-common under state law. Tenants-in-common are vulnerable because any individual tenant can force a partition. Too often, real estate speculators acquire a small share of heirs’ property in order to file a partition action and force a sale. Using this tactic, an investor can acquire the entire parcel for a price well below its fair market value and deplete a family’s inherited wealth in the process. UPHPA provides a series of simple due process protections: notice, appraisal, right of first refusal, and if the other co-tenants choose not to exercise their right and a sale is required, a commercially reasonable sale supervised by the court to ensure all parties receive their fair share of the proceeds. For further information about enacting UPHPA please contact Legislative Counsel Jane Sternecky at (312) 450-6622 or jsternecky@uniformlaws.org.
The Uniform Partnership Act of 1997 (UPA) modernizes the Uniform Partnership Act of 1914, adopted in every state except Louisiana. It establishes a partnership as a separate legal entity, and not merely as an aggregate of individual partners. For further information about the UPA, please contact ULC Legislative Counsel Kari Bearman at 312-450-6617 or kbearman@uniformlaws.org.
The Uniform Personal Data Protection Act applies fair information practices to the collection and use of personal data from consumers by business enterprises. The Act provides a reasonable level of consumer protection without incurring the compliance and regulatory costs associated with some existing state regimes. The Act recognizes that the collection and use of personal data are important features of our modern economy but raise significant issues of privacy and control. The Act outlines compatible, incompatible, and prohibited data practices and provides an enforcement mechanism to ensure compliance with the Act. For information about enacting this uniform act, please contact ULC Legislative Counsel Libby Snyder at (312) 450-6619 or lsnyder@uniformlaws.org.
The Uniform Power of Attorney Act (UPOAA) provides a simple way for a person (the "principal") to name an agent to act for the principal and manage the principal's financial assets. Powers of attorney are used extensively by estate planners to name a trusted agent who can act in case of the principal's future incapacity, avoiding the need for a court-appointed conservator. While the UPOAA is chiefly a set of default rules, the act also contains safeguards to deter and detect financial abuse. For further information about enacting UPOAA please contact ULC Chief Counsel Benjamin Orzeske at (312) 450-6621 or borzeske@uniformlaws.org.
The Uniform Powers of Appointment Act (UPAA) governs the creation, exercise, amendment, and release of powers of appointment. A power of appointment is an estate planning tool that permits the owner of property to name a third party and give that person the power to direct the distribution of that property among some group of permissible beneficiaries. It is an effective and flexible technique used in a wide variety of situations, but there is very little statutory law governing powers of appointment. Instead, estate planning attorneys have had to rely on a patchwork of state court decisions. The UPAA does not make major changes to the law, but rather clarifies and codifies the existing common law into a statute, relying heavily on the Restatement (Third) of Property: Wills and other Donative Transfers. For further information about enacting the UPAA please contact ULC Chief Counsel Benjamin Orzeske at (312) 450-6621 or borzeske@uniformlaws.org.
The Uniform Premarital and Marital Agreements Act (UPMAA) addresses the varying standards for these types of agreements that have led to conflicting laws, judgments, and uncertainty about enforcement as couples move from state to state. For further information about enacting the UPMAA please contact ULC Legislative Counsel Libby Snyder at (312) 450-6619 or lsnyder@uniformlaws.org.
The Uniform Pretrial Release and Detention Act (UPRDA) creates a comprehensive procedural framework for release and detention determinations. UPRDA provisions address: (1) the use of citations in lieu of arrest for minor offenses; (2) a time limit on when a hearing must be conducted for an individual who is arrested; (3) appointment of counsel; (4) a pretrial risk determination by a court to individualize release or detention; (5) review of a defendant’s financial condition so that inability to pay a fee does not lead to detention; and (6) an obligation on the court to consider restrictive conditional release as an alternative to detention. For more information about UPRDA, please contact Legislative Counsel Jane Sternecky at (312) 450-6622 or jsternecky@uniformlaws.org.
The Uniform Act on the Prevention of and Remedies for Human Trafficking (UAPRHT) provides the three components necessary for ending human trafficking: comprehensive criminal penalties; protections for human-trafficking victims; and public awareness and prevention methods. For further information about the UAPRHT please contact Legislative Counsel Lindsay Beaver at 312-450-6618 or lbeaver@uniformlaws.org.
The promulgation of the Uniform Parentage Act (2017) has necessitated amendments to the Uniform Probate Code’s intestacy and class-gift provisions. The 2019 Amendments to the Uniform Probate Code provide a more consistent formula for determining intestate shares within blended families, remove outdated terminology, and incorporate the concept of de facto parentage. The intestacy formulae will also account for the possibility that a child may have more than two parents, and therefore more than two sets of grandparents.
The Uniform Protected Series Act (UPSA) provides a comprehensive framework for the formation and operation of a protected series limited liability company. A protected series LLC has both “horizontal” liability shields as well as the standard “vertical” liability shield. The “horizontal” shields protect each protected series (and its assets) from automatic, vicarious liability for the debts of the company and for the debts of any other protected series of the company. For further information about UPSA please contact ULC Legislative Counsel Kari Bearman at 312-450-6617 or kbearman@uniformlaws.org.
The Model Protection of Charitable Assets Act (MPOCAA) articulates and confirms the role of the state Attorney General in protecting charitable assets. The Attorney General’s authority is broad and MPOCAA does not limit or narrow that authority. The act provides the Attorney General (the term is used in the act to mean the charity regulator in the state) with an inventory of basic information without overburdening the charities or the Attorney General with excessive reporting requirements. For further information about MPOCAA please contact Legislative Program Director Kaitlin Wolff at (312) 450-6615 or kwolff@uniformlaws.org.
The Model Protection of Genetic Information Act (MPGIA) comprehensively regulates acquisition, use, retention, and disclosure of genetic information in the context of employment. UPGIA allows individuals to control the privacy and prevent misuse of their genetic information. For more information about enacting MPGIA please contact Legislative Program Director Kaitlin Wolff at (312) 450-6615 or kwolff@uniformlaws.org.
The Uniform Prudent Investor Act (UPIA) provides rules to govern the actions of trustees with respect to investment of trust property. Trustees are required to take into account such factors as risk and return, needs of the beneficiaries, the effect of inflation or deflation, general economic conditions, potential tax consequences, and the beneficiaries' need for liquidity, income, or preservation of capital. For further information about enacting the UPIA please contact ULC Chief Counsel Benjamin Orzeske at (312) 450-6621 or borzeske@uniformlaws.org.
The Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA) governs the management of funds donated to charitable institutions in accordance with modern investment and expenditure practice. The act updates the Uniform Management of Institutional Funds Act of 1972 by incorporating modern portfolio theory and permitting total-return investing. For further information about enacting UPMIFA please contact ULC Chief Counsel Benjamin Orzeske at (312) 450-6621 or borzeske@uniformlaws.org.
The Uniform Public Expression Protection Act is designed to prevent an abusive type of litigation called a “SLAPP,” or “strategic lawsuit against public participation.” A SLAPP may be filed as a defamation, invasion of privacy, nuisance, or other type of claim, but its real purpose is to silence and intimidate the defendant from engaging in constitutionally protected activities, such as free speech. The uniform act contains a clear framework for the efficient review and dismissal of SLAPPs. For information about enacting this uniform act, please contact Legislative Program Director Kaitlin Wolff at (312) 450-6615 or kwolff@uniformlaws.org.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for public bodies to meet when disasters and other emergencies make in-person meetings of public bodies either impossible or inadvisable. The Act is intended to provide a process to ensure that important public meetings can go forward when these events occur consistent with protecting public access to meetings. The act builds on existing state laws authorizing the declaration of emergencies and subjecting public meetings to various procedural and public access requirements. This Act is intended to work in harmony with those laws, particularly open meetings and other laws providing for public comment on and participation in the deliberations of public bodies.
This Act is designed to improve the preparedness of states for public health emergencies. Specifically, the Act clarifies the powers of a governor to declare a public health emergency and to issue orders in response to that emergency. Simultaneously, the Act establishes measures to promote a governor’s accountability to the Legislature and to the public at large. The goal of the Act is to empower a governor to act quickly and decisively while also clarifying substantive and procedural limitations to a governor’s authority. The Model Act also imposes a sunset provision on every public-health emergency declaration and public-health emergency order, and it requires a governor to make a new record as a condition of renewing declaration or an order.
The Model Punitive Damages Act (MPDA) provides states with improved procedures for awarding punitive damages, including standards of proof, procedures to control unreasonable awards, and careful court review of punitive damage awards.
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