ULC Approves Seven New Acts for State Consideration

by Thomas Morris and Patti Dahlberg

The Uniform Law Commission (ULC) is a national body consisting of commissioners appointed by all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. The ULC promotes uniformity for state laws when uniformity is desirable and practicable by developing proposed uniform legislation for state legislature consideration.

In Colorado, legislative leadership appoints commissioners pursuant to section 2-3-601, C.R.S. Under Joint Rule 24 (b)(1)(D), the Colorado Commission on Uniform State Laws (CCUSL) may recommend bills for introduction during a legislative session of the General Assembly. The CCUSL meets during the annual summer ULC conference each year to adopt a preliminary legislative agenda for the upcoming regular session. It then typically meets at least once before the regular session to finalize the agenda.

The CCUSL will meet at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, August 13, 2018, in Room 0112 for a preliminary discussion of this year’s legislative agenda. The meeting is open to the public and will be broadcast live over the internet.

The CCUSL has included the first six of the seven new acts listed below in its proposed legislative agenda for the 2019 legislative session. The proposed agenda also includes four acts previously approved by ULC:  the Regulation of Virtual Currency Businesses Act, the Revised Athlete Agents Act (2015), the Revised Unclaimed Property Act, and the Voidable Transactions Act Amendments (2014).

The seven new uniform acts approved by the ULC in July at its annual conference in Louisville, Kentucky were:

  • Uniform Civil Remedies for Unauthorized Disclosure of Intimate Images Act. The act creates a cause of action for unauthorized disclosure of private, intimate images and 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.
  • Uniform Criminal Records Accuracy Act. Intended to improve the accuracy of the criminal history records used for law enforcement purposes and frequently used in determining a person’s eligibility for employment, housing, credit, and licensing, the act requires the governmental law enforcement agencies and courts that collect and use criminal history records to ensure the accuracy of collected information. It allows individuals to see and correct errors and includes a mistaken identity prevention registry.
  • Uniform Fiduciary Income and Principal Act. An updated version of the Uniform Principal and Income Act (adopted in 47 jurisdictions, including Colorado), this act provides modern accounting standards for fiduciaries to allocate receipts and disbursements between principal and income and to adjust those allocations as appropriate. It includes flexible rules on unitrust conversion, which were not part of the most recent version of the act but have since become popular in states.
  • Uniform Nonparent Custody and Visitation Act. The act addresses the rights to custody of or visitation with a child for parties other than parents. 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.
  • 2018 Amendment to Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (RULONA). The 2018 Amendment to RULONA authorizes notaries public to perform notarial acts for remotely located individuals using audio-visual communication technology regardless of where the individual may be located. The amendment is not limited to foreign located individuals; it extends the authority to any remotely located individuals. It was prepared in response to a rapidly emerging trend among the states to authorize the performance of notarial acts by means of audio-visual technology. Colorado adopted RULONA in 2017.
  • Uniform Supplemental Commercial Law for the Uniform Regulation of Virtual Currency Businesses Act. The act addresses the commercial law rights of virtual-currency businesses that have control over their customers and their customers’ virtual currency by providing to those businesses and customers duties and rights comparable to those enjoyed by customers of securities intermediaries under Article 8, Part 5 of the Uniform Commercial Code. This act is a companion to the 2017 Uniform Regulation of Virtual-Currency Businesses Act.
  • Amendments to UCC Articles 1, 3, 8 and 9. The act is drafted to provide the substantive commercial law rules to support a national electronic registry for residential mortgage notes with minimal displacement of state laws. Until the federal National Mortgage Note Repository Act referred to in the Amendments is enacted, the Amendments are not part of the official text of the UCC, and states should not undertake to introduce or enact these amendments.

 

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