Aug. 20, 2004 – Two V.I. lawyers, private-practice attorney Tom Bolt and the Legislature's legal counsel, Yvonne Tharpes, were among 240 legal professionals taking part in this summer's annual meeting of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.
The meeting, held in Portland, Ore., attracted attorneys, judges, law professors, legislators and other state officials with law degrees.
The conference, founded 113 years ago, is made up today of more than 300 commissioners appointed in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to draft and promote the enactment of uniform laws "designed to solve problems common to all the states and territories," according to a release. Commissioners donate their time as a pro bono public service.
At their annual meeting, the commissioners consider drafts of statutes in areas of the law where uniformity among jurisdictions is desirable. Four such drafts were approved at the Portland meeting and are now available for enactment by the various bodies:
– The Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act gives clerks and recorders of deeds the legal authority to prepare for electronic recording of real property instruments.
– The Uniform Residential Mortgage Satisfaction Act provides rules and procedures for clearing fully paid real-estate mortgages from real property records.
– The Model Entity Transactions Act, a collaborative effort with the American Bar Association, provides a single statute authorizing mergers, conversions and other types of restructuring transactions among different forms of incorporated and unincorporated businesses.
– The Uniform Wage Withholding and Unemployment Insurance Procedure Act simplifies the reporting and paying of withheld taxes for multi-jurisdictional employers.
Among the more than 200 acts that have come from the council are the Uniform Commercial Code, Uniform Probate Code, Uniform Partnership Act, Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, Uniform Interstate Family Support Act and Uniform Securities Act.
The Uniform Securities Act was recently adopted by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Charles W. Turnbull.
For more information, visit the NCCUSL Web site.
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