ULC News

 View Only

ABA Approves Five New Uniform Acts

  • 1.  ABA Approves Five New Uniform Acts

    Posted 01-28-2019 05:14 PM

    January 28, 2019 – Five new uniform acts have been approved by the American Bar Association's House of Delegates as "appropriate Acts for those states desiring to adopt the specific substantive law suggested therein." The acts were approved at the ABA's Midyear Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 23-28, 2019.  All of the acts were drafted and approved by the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) in 2018.  

    The Uniform Civil Remedies for Unauthorized Disclosure of Intimate Images Act addresses an increasingly common form of abuse that causes immediate, and in many cases, irreversible harm. The Act creates a cause of action for unauthorized disclosure of private, intimate images.  The Act also outlines procedures enabling victims to protect their identity in court proceedings.  In addition, the Act provides various remedies for victims, including actual damages, statutory damages, punitive damages, and attorney's fees.

    The Uniform Criminal Records Accuracy Act is designed to improve the accuracy of criminal history records, commonly called a rap sheet, that are frequently used in determining the eligibility of a person for employment, housing, credit, and licensing, in addition to law enforcement purposes.  The Act imposes duties on governmental law enforcement agencies and courts that collect, store and use criminal history records, to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in the rap sheet.  The Act provides individuals the right to see and correct errors in their rap sheet.  Through use of a mistaken identity prevention registry, the Act also provides a mechanism by which an individual whose name is similar to and confused with a person who is the subject of criminal-history-record information, a means to minimize the possibility of a mistaken arrest or denial of housing, employment, credit, or other opportunities.

    The Uniform Fiduciary Income and Principal Act is an updated version of the Uniform Principal and Income Act, which has been adopted in 47 jurisdictions.  The Act provides rules for allocating receipts and disbursements between income and principal accounts of a trust in accordance with the fiduciary duty to treat all beneficiaries loyally and impartially, unless the terms of the trust specify otherwise.  This revision includes provisions allowing conversion of a traditional trust with income and principal beneficiaries into a total-return unitrust when all beneficiaries consent.

    The Uniform Nonparent Custody and Visitation Act addresses the rights of third parties other than parents to custody of or visitation with a child.  Those rights are also affected by the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000), which held that courts must give deference to decisions of fit parents concerning the raising of children, including concerning grandparents' visitation rights.  The Act recognizes a right to seek custody or visitation for two categories of individuals: (1) nonparents who have served as consistent caretakers of a child without expectation of compensation, and (2) other nonparents who have a substantial relationship with a child and who demonstrate that denial of custody or visitation would result in harm to the child.

    The Uniform Supplemental Commercial Law for the Uniform Regulation of Virtual-Currency Businesses Act (the "Supplemental Act") is a follow-up to the Uniform Regulation of Virtual-Currency Businesses Act ("URVCBA").  The URVCBA establishes a regulatory framework for virtual-currency businesses to operate either by license or registration in a state and creates safeguards to protect consumers.  As a regulatory act, the URVCBA provides numerous robust user protections based on commercial law principles but does not directly address the commercial law rules for transactions and relationships between virtual-currency businesses and consumers.  This Supplemental Act provides the commercial law rules using the time-tested duties and rights of customers of securities intermediaries under the Uniform Commercial Code. The Supplemental Act does this by incorporating Article 8 of the Uniform Commercial Code into the agreement made between a virtual-currency licensee or registrant and users.

    Information on each of these uniform acts is available at the ULC's website at www.uniformlaws.org.

    The Uniform Law Commission, now in its 128th year, provides states with non-partisan, well-conceived and well-drafted legislation that brings clarity and stability to critical areas of state statutory law.  The organization comprises more than 300 lawyers, judges, and law professors, appointed by the states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, to research, draft and promote enactment of uniform state laws in areas of state law where uniformity is desirable and practical.  Since its inception in 1892, the group has promulgated more than 200 acts, among them such bulwarks of state statutory law as the Uniform Commercial Code, the Uniform Probate Code, and the Uniform Partnership Act.

    ###

    Contact:  Katie Robinson, ULC Communications Officer, krobinson@...

    Uniform Law Commission / 111 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 1010, Chicago, IL  60602 / 312/450-6600 / www.uniformlaws.org

     



    ------------------------------
    Katie Robinson
    Legislative Program Director
    Chicago IL
    ------------------------------