The Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act governs living wills and powers of attorney for health care. It was last updated in 1993. The committee is drafting a revision to better address issues including the determination of capacity; default surrogates (including the priority list of those who can act as surrogate, surrogates for un-befriended patients, and disagreement among surrogates); and eliminating barriers to use and execution (including electronic documents and videorecorded statements, statutory form language, and oral designations). The committee will also add provisions applicable to mental-health advance directives. The Uniform Law Commissioners will vote whether to approve the final draft act in July 2023.
The committee has drafted an act to help alleviate the gridlock that can result from the common-law rule requiring unanimity among cotenants for property management decisions. The committee attempted to balance the protection of individual property rights with the need to make management decisions more efficiently, including the possibility of binding unknown or unlocatable owners when necessary. The act would preserve the cotenants’ right to agree to alternative terms in a cotenancy agreement. The Uniform Law Commissioners will vote on whether to approve the final draft act in July 2023.
The drafting committee will revise the Uniform Determination of Death Act. This widely adopted act, originally approved in 1980, provides a simple two-prong test to determine when an individual is legally dead. A physician must verify that an individual has sustained either (1) irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, or (2) irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem. The second prong that defines brain death needs updating to ensure conformity with recent advances in medical science and evolving standards of practice. The committee will read its current draft for comment and critique in July 2023 and will meet again over the following year to revise its draft for possible final approval in 2024.
his committee will attempt to clarify and resolve the many conflicts of existing state laws governing trusts and estates. The scope of the project is broad, and will likely address trusts, wills, will substitutes, intestacy, estate administration, fiduciary powers and duties, powers of appointments, powers of attorneys, jurisdictional claims, and statutes of limitations. The drafting committee is collaborating with the American Law Institute reporters who are drafting the Restatement (Third) of Conflict of Laws. The committee’s current draft is available online but will not be read at the ULC 2023 Annual Meeting. The draft will be revised over the coming year and the earliest possible approval of a new uniform act on this topic will be in summer 2025.
This committee is studying the need for and feasibility of updating the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act, last updated in 1986, to address issues including optional extension beyond age 21, successor custodians, minor beneficiaries of qualified retirement accounts, and the relationship between UTMA accounts and other types of investment accounts intended to benefit minors, such as 529 and 529A accounts.
In 2020, a New Jersey federal judge’s husband and son were shot at their front door by a disgruntled former litigant who targeted the judge’s family by getting her home address from public records. In the wake of this horrific act of violence, states are beginning to pass legislation allowing the redaction of personal information of judges and other public officials from public records. However, there is no consistent approach. A committee on redaction of personal information from public records is studying whether a uniform or model act on the subject is feasible, and the scope of any potential drafting project.
The RPTE Section appoints at least one Advisor to each uniform law commission project involving the law of real property, trusts and estates. All uniform law drafting committees are open to any interested observer and members of the RPTE Section are encouraged to join and contribute their relevant expertise. Visit www.uniformlaws.org to find more information on these committees and on other ULC projects.
