New Acts

5 total

Consumer Debt Default Judgments Act  

Numerous studies report that default judgments are entered in more than half of all debt collection actions. The purpose of this Act is to provide consumer debtors and courts with the information necessary to evaluate debt collection actions. The Act provides consumer debtors with access to information needed to understand claims being asserted against them and identify available defenses; advises consumers of the adverse effects of failing to raise defenses or seek the voluntary settlement of claims; and makes consumers aware of assistance that may be available from legal aid organizations. The Act also seeks to provide a uniform framework in which courts can fairly, efficiently, and promptly evaluate the merits of requests for default judgments while balancing the interests of all parties and the courts.

 

Health-Care Decisions Act  

This Act is intended to supersede the 1993 Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act. This Act enables individuals to appoint agents to make health care decisions for them should they be unable to make those decisions for themselves, provide their health-care professionals and agents with instructions about their values and priorities regarding their health care, and to indicate particular medical treatment they do or do not wish to receive. It also authorizes certain people to make health-care decisions for individuals incapable of making their own decisions but who have not appointed agents, thus avoiding the need to appoint a guardian or otherwise involve a court in most situations. In addition, it sets forth the related duties and powers of agents and healthcare professionals, and provides protection in the form of immunity to both under specified circumstances. This Act shares the goals of the 1993 Act but is revised to reflect changes in how health care is delivered, increases in non-traditional familial relationships and living arrangements, the proliferation of the use of electronic documents, the growing use of separate advance directives exclusively for mental health care, and other recent developments. The Act also seeks to improve upon the 1993 Act based on decades of experience and knowledge about how people make health-care decisions and about the challenges associated with creating and using advance directives.

 

Public-Health Emergency Authority Act  

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.

 

Special Deposits Act  

A special deposit is a deposit of money at a bank where the person entitled to the money is only determined after a specific event or circumstance has occurred. Although such accounts are commonly used, the surrounding legal protections are far from certain. The Uniform Special Deposits Act minimizes these uncertainties and provides banks and their customers with clear, executable rules to ensure the expectations of special deposit account users will be respected. For more information about enacting the Uniform Special Deposits Act, please contact ULC Legislative Counsel Kari Bearman at (312) 450-6617 or kbearman@uniformlaws.org.

 

Unlawful Restrictions in Land Records Act  

The Uniform Unlawful Restrictions in Land Records Act allows homeowners to remove unlawful restrictive covenants from the deeds to their homes, and allows the removal of unlawful restrictive covenants from the governing documents of condominiums and other homeowner associations. While discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing has been illegal since the Fair Housing Act of 1968, many property records today still contain offensive and unlawful restrictions that predate the Fair Housing Act. To preserve the chain of title and history of the property, the act does not allow these restrictions to be physically destroyed or redacted. Instead, the Act permits the homeowner or association to fill out an amendment form, a sample of which is provided in the Act, and record the amendment to their title to effectively remove the unlawful restriction.