Benjamin Bullard

bbullard@cullmantimes.com

A bill aimed at addressing Alabamians’ ownership and control of their deceased loved ones’ digital assets unanimously passed Tuesday in a vote before the Alabama House of Representatives.

HB 138, sponsored by Reps. Randall Shedd (R-Fairview) and Juandalynn Givan (D-Birmingham), cleared the House on a 101-0 vote. It now moves to the Alabama Senate, where Shedd said he hopes it will enjoy similarly robust support.

“We are hopeful, and have good reason to believe, that it’ll pass the Senate,” said Shedd from Montgomery Tuesday. “It’s been worked on by a lot of folks, and I think it’s got a good chance now of passing the Senate, being signed by the governor, and becoming law. There were some compromises, but I think it is a good, and very timely, piece of legislation.”

The bill is intended to provide Alabama residents with a means of inheriting and controlling the digital assets left behind by their legal decedents. Alabama’s version of the bill is an adaptation of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), a template that several other state legislatures already have adopted.

The bill outlines additions to the state’s fiduciary law — that is, law that governs how one person may legally control and represent the interests of another — so that it provides for ongoing custody of a person’s digital assets once that person has died.

Benjamin Bullard can be reached by phone at 256-734-2131 ext. 145.