The State Bar Association of North Dakota Winter 2015 Gavel Magazine | Page 12

“IT HAPPENS HERE, TOO”
Purdon has increased federal resources
at the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation
and throughout the western division. The
State Legislature is considering SB 2107,
The Uniform Act on Prevention of and
Remedies for Human Trafficking.
The lesson for all of us who might feel
isolated from the problems occurring
elsewhere is, “It happens here, too.”

ABA Mid-Year Meeting
The 2015 Mid-Year Meeting of the ABA
House of Delegates features a number of
technological updates to Uniform State
Laws, in addition to aspirational standards
for prosecutors and defense counsel in the
ABA Fourth Edition of the Criminal Justice
Standards.

D A N T R AY N O R
ABA Delegate

At the 2013 Annual Meeting of the
Keeping in mind that “It happens here, too,”
American Law Institute the thensome more novel resolution topics might
President of the ABA Laurel G. Bellows
provide the most interesting application to
gave an impassioned speech about the
our lives here on the prairie.
danger of human trafficking
Those changes include new
Keeping in
in America, equating it to a
uniform laws that allow access
form of modern-day slavery.
mind that “It
to digital assets, like an iTunes
I attended the meeting
happens here, account; a tort section proposal
and listened to President
to prohibit the keeping of wild
Bellows’ stirring address. I
too,” some more or exotic animals; or a criminal
remember thinking at the
justice section resolution to
time that the information
novel resolution prevent witness tampering
was certainly interesting,
through Facebook.
topics might
but hardly applied to our
life and surroundings in
provide the
Below are some of the pending
North Dakota.
most interesting resolution topics. The ABA
webpage (www.americanbar.
Fast forward to 2015
application to our org) publishes the entire
and the Fargo Forum
agenda. I appreciate comments
newspapers published a
lives here on the or questions from SBAND
series on the reality of
members.
prairie.
human trafficking occurring
as a result of the rapid development
Resolution 103A Uniform Laws Re
in our western communities. Attorney
Digital Assets
General Wayne Stenehjem is proposing a
The Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital
number of law changes to assist with the
Assets Act (UFADAA) extends a fiduciary’s
identification of victims and prosecution
traditional access to an account holder’s
of human traffickers. U.S. Attorney Tim

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12

THE GAVEL

tangible assets to also include the account
holder’s digital assets stored by a custodian
and accessed via the Internet. The UFADAA
is pending before the North Dakota
Legislature as SB 2106.

Resolution 103B Uniform Laws
Recognition of Foreign POAs
Powers of attorney or other substitute
decision-making documents are routinely
used throughout the United States and
Canada. The Uniform Recognition of
Substitute Decision-Making Documents
Act allows recognition of foreign-executed
substitute decision-making documents and
shields the person who accepts them from
liability.

Resolution 103C Uniform Laws Re
Revised and Renamed Fraudulent
Transfers Act
The Uniform Voidable Transactions Act
(UVTA), formerly named the Uniform
Fraudulent Transfer Act, strengthens
creditor protections by providing remedies
for certain transactions by a debtor that
are unfair to the debtor’s creditors. The
amendments, among other things, clarify
terminology that was confusing to many
courts and litigants and adds a clear choiceof-law provision that offers predictability
and reduces costs. The amendments also
improve provisions for determining a
debtor’s insolvency and provide crucial
guidance to courts and litigants regarding
key evidentiary matters. The UVTA
is pending before the North Dakota
Legislature as HB 1135.

Resolution 104 Regulation of Tax
Return Preparers
The Taxation Section advances a resolution
urging Congress to amend laws and
regulations to return authority for
regulating tax preparers to the Treasury
Department. The recommended law change