Law Commons^™

Innovation In A Legal Vacuum: The Uncertain Legal Landscape For Shared Micro-Mobility, David Pimentel, Michael B. Lowry, Timothy W. Koglin, Ronald W. Pimentel

Journal of Law and Mobility

The last few years have seen an explosion in the number and size shared micro-mobility systems (“SMMS”) across the United States. Some of these systems have seen extraordinary success and the potential benefit of these systems to communities is considerable. However, SMMS have repeatedly ran into legal barriers that either prevent their implementation entirely, confuse and dissuade potential users, or otherwise limit SMMS’s potential positive impact.

This paper reflects a detailed study of state laws relating to SMMS and the platforms commonly used in these systems. The study uncovered many inconsistencies with micro-mobility laws across the country. Currently, many states …

Family Caregiving And The Law Of Succession: A Proposal, Thomas P. Gallanis, Josephine Gittler

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

As the American population ages, the need for long-term care, already great, will become even greater. Some of this care is paid for by government programs, such as Medicaid, and by individual long-term care insurance policies. But the combination of the public fisc and private insurance are, and will continue to be, insufficient to pay for all of the care our seniors and adults with disabilities need. The provision of care in a family residence by one or more family members is an important component of our health care delivery system and must be supported and encouraged by public policy …

The Probate Definition Of Family: A Proposal For Guided Discretion In Intestacy, Susan N. Gary

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Intestacy statutes may not match the wishes of many people who die intestate. Changes to the Uniform Probate Code (UPC) include or exclude potential takers, as the drafters attempt to bring the UPC provisions closer to the intent of more intestate decedents. As the UPC tries to fine-tune the intestacy statutes, however, family circumstances continue to get more and more complicated. Families headed by unmarried couples, blended families with children from multiple marriages, and families in which adults raise children who are not legally theirs, have become commonplace. For some decedents, non-family friends and caregivers may be more important than …

The Upc Substituted Judgment/Best Interest Standard For Guardian Decisions: A Proposal For Reform, Lawrence A. Forlik, Linda S. Whitton

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The introduction in 1997 of "substituted judgment" as a guiding principle for guardian decisions was a key contribution of the UPC to guardianship reform. The current UPC Section 5-314(a) instructs guardians to "consider the expressed desires and personal values of the ward" when making decisions and to "at all times ... act in the ward's best interest." This dual mandate for guardian decisions was intended to promote the self-determination interests of incapacitated adults. This Article argues that in practice the standard has failed to achieve this goal. It analyzes the shortcomings of UPC Section 5-314(a) and other statutory decision-making standards …

Children Of Assisted Reproduction, Kristine S. Knaplund

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

More than three decades after the birth of the first child conceived through in vitro fertilization, few states have comprehensive statutes to establish the parentage of children born using assisted reproduction techniques (ART). While thousands of such children are born each year courts struggle to apply outdated laws. For example, does a statute terminating paternity for a man who donates sperm to a married woman apply if the woman is unmarried? In 2008, the Uniform Probate Code (UPC) added two much-needed sections on the complicated parentage and inheritance issues that arise in the field of assisted reproduction. Yet it is …

The Uniform Probate Code Upends The Law Of Remainders, Jesse Dukeminier

Michigan Law Review

Nothing is more settled in the law of remainders than that an indefeasibly vested remainder is transmissible to the remainderman's heirs or devisees upon the remainderman's death. Thus, where a grantor conveys property "to A for life, then to B and her heirs," B's remainder passes to B's heirs or devisees if B dies during the life of A. Inheritability of vested remainders was recognized in the time of Edward I, and devisability was recognized with the Statute of Wills in 1540.

Stemming The Modification Of Child-Support Orders By Responding Courts: A Proposal To Amend Ruresa's Antisupersession Clause, Jane H. Gorham

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note examines the practice of using the Act to modify existing child-support orders. Part I explores the question of whether the Act's enforcement mechanisms were designed to permit the responding court to modify existing support orders. It emphasizes the problems involved with concurrent support orders and modification and describes the range of positions courts have taken to support or oppose allowing responding courts to modify support orders. Part II explores the federal child-support enforcement programs, their interstate applications, and their relationship to the Act's enforcement mechanisms. The analysis in these parts leads to Part III, which proposes an amendment …

The Impact Of The Uniform Probate Code On Court Structure, Ralph P. Dupont

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

After considering the present pattern of probate court structure in the United States, this article considers the need for probate court reform as reflected in the deficiencies of the present system. It further indicates that a realistic choice of court structure by legislatures will ultimately be made from among three options: (1) to enlarge the jurisdiction of the present probate court of the state more nearly to approximate the form currently obtaining in several states; (2) to appoint a new body of probate judges and thus create an entirely new court; and (3) to enlarge the jurisdiction of the present …

Uniform Probate Code--Illegitimacy--Inheritance And The Illegitimate: A Model For Probate Reform, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The Uniform Probate Code (Code), which was approved by the American Bar Association in August 1969, deals with the problem of inheritance by illegitimates both with regard to intestate succession-section 2-109-and also with regard to the construction of a bequest to "children" by will-section 2-611. This Note will examine the issue whether the Code, which presents a comprehensive model for probate reform, deals with the problem of inheritance by illegitimates in an appropriate, desirable, and constitutional manner. The Code provisions concerning illegitimacy relate to many other provisions of the Code in which childhood status is relevant; therefore, it will be …

Intestate Succession Under The Uniform Probate Code, Thomas J. Mulder

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The pervasive social policy underlying the Anglo-American law on succession of property at death is freedom of testation. Our law makes meaningful one's right to decide who shall inherit his property by providing a legal instrument, the will, to distribute property to chosen recipients. When a man dies without having exercised this right, however, the laws of intestate succession determine who shall receive his property, and in what shares it shall be received. In effect, the laws of intestate succession are an estate plan written for the decedent by his state legislature. These laws do not function as a restriction …

Family Support From Fugitive Fathers: A Proposed Amendment To Michigan's Long Arm Statute, Robert L. Nelson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

It is the purpose of this article to propose and discuss an amendment to Michigan's long arm statute which will allow the entry of extraterritorial alimony, separate maintenance, or child support decrees when Michigan is the state of the marital domicile and the defendant-spouse cannot be located for personal service of process. A plaintiff employing the proposed provision in a divorce action will be able to seek alimony, separate maintenance, or support payments as if the defendant were before the court, and the court will have the authority to grant her the necessary relief. If and when the wife later …

Informal Proceedings Under The Uniform Probate Code: Notice And Due Process, Roger A. Manlin, Richard A. Martens

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Uniform Probate Code's formal procedures, which require that notice be mailed or be personally delivered to interested parties prior to any formal proceeding, seem to offer little difficulty in terms of due process. However, the Uniform Probate Code's informal procedures, insofar as they encompass no-notice proceedings, have suffered some criticism." It is the purpose of this article to respond to these criticisms, and to demonstrate that the informal procedures of the Code as accepted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws do in fact offer all interested persons adequate protection of their interests in an estate …

Michigan's Adoption Of Uniform State Legislation, George W. Bates

Michigan Law Review

The commissioners on Uniform State Laws have just filed their fourth Biennial Report to the Legislature of Michigan. This Conference is a body composed of representatives of each State, Territory and Federal possession, who meet in annual conference under a permanent organization commonly designated the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. The twenty-sixth annual meeting was held in Chicago last August. The commissioners consist very largely of lawyers and judges of standing and experience and of law teachers from some of the principal law schools. There are usually three representatives from each State or Territory, appointed for terms of three to …