NCCUSL Annual Meeting
The 118th annual meeting of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) was held July 9-16, 2009 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. At the meeting, the ULC approved five new acts:
- The Uniform Collateral Consequences of Conviction Act addresses the various penalties and disqualifications that individuals face incidental to criminal sentencing, which are often known as "collateral consequences" and include such penalties as disqualification from voting, prohibitions from running for office, exclusion from certain types of employment, etc. The provisions in the Act are largely procedural, and designed to rationalize and clarify policies and provisions which are already widely accepted by the states. The Act includes provisions to ensure that defendants are aware of the existence of collateral sanctions before sentencing.
- The Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act provides a mechanism for the non-probate transfer of land. The Act allows an owner of real property to pass the property simply and directly to a beneficiary on the ownerâ??s death without probate. The property passes by means of a recorded transfer on a death (TOD) deed. During the owner's lifetime, the beneficiary of a TOD deed has no interest in the property and the owner retains full power to transfer or encumber the property or to revoke the deed.
- The Uniform Law Enforcement Access to Entity Information Act is designed to be a substitute for the Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act (S.569), currently pending in Congress (co-sponsored by Senators Levin, Grassley, and McCaskill). S.569 would require virtually all corporations and limited liability companies to file "beneficial ownership" information with the Secretary of State. The Uniform Act, a joint project with the ULC and the American Bar Association Committee on Corporate Laws, and supported by the National Association of Secretaries of State, would preserve the traditional confidentiality of entity ownership and would instead require the filing of the name of an individual (a records-contact) who would be responsible for obtaining, maintaining, and verifying record ownership information.
- The Uniform Collaborative Law Act regulates the use of collaborative law, a form of alternative dispute resolution that is becoming more popular in the states. Collaborative law is now used mainly in family law disputes, but its practice has spread to other areas of the law, including the settlement of contract and insurance disputes. States have approached the regulation of collaborative law through a variety of means, including statutes, court rules, and independent boards. This new Act standardizes the most important features of collaborative law participation, mindful of ethical concerns as well as questions of evidentiary privilege.
- The Uniform Statutory Trust Entity Act governs the use of statutory trusts as a mode of business organization. A statutory trust provides a flexible business entity that can be used as an alternative to the partnership, limited partnership, limited liability company, and corporate forms of organization. Statutory trusts are commonly used in the mutual fund and securitization industries, and it is also used in certain tax-advantaged real estate transactions. The Uniform Act modernizes the existing, but outdated, laws governing these types of entities.
A portion of the Uniform Business Organizations Act (UBOA), containing language to harmonize common provisions found throughout existing business organization acts, such as the Uniform Partnership Act and the Uniform Limited Partnership Act, was also approved. This portion of the project establishes common definitions, and makes the mechanics of filing, qualification of foreign entities, and entity transaction provisions on mergers, interest exchanges and domestications consistent between the various business entity acts. Work continues on the rest of the UBOA.
The following acts were also debated at the ULCâ??s annual meeting: Model State Administrative Procedure Act; Uniform Presidential Electors Act; Uniform Insurable Interests in Trusts Act; Uniform Partition of Inherited Property Act; Uniform Recordation of Custodial Interrogations Act; Uniform Law on Notarial Acts; and Uniform Military Services and Overseas Civilian Absentee Voters Act.
Current drafts of all of these acts can be found at the ULCâ??s website at www.nccusl.org.
