TO ADOPT THE UNIFORM ELECTRONIC LEGAL MATERIALS ACT.

More reliable Arkansas legal records

Beginning January 1, 2026, Arkansas sets standards for official electronic legal records first published electronically on or after that date. Covered records include the Arkansas Constitution, Arkansas Code, Code of Arkansas Rules, and agency rules with current or past legal force. Materials published by the judiciary, including court decisions and court rules, are excluded. Official publishers are the Arkansas Code Revision Commission for the Code and the Bureau of Legislative Research for the Rules. The Secretary of State handles the Constitution and agency rules with the force of law. Publishers issuing only electronic versions must designate them as official. Publishers also issuing non-electronic versions can designate electronic versions as official only by meeting authentication, preservation, security, and access requirements. Publishers must verify official records and give users a way to check that they have not been altered. Verified records are presumed accurate, including records from states with substantially similar laws whose official publishers designate and verify them. Anyone challenging authenticity must prove the record is more likely than not to be inauthentic. Publishers must preserve and secure records that are or were official, in electronic or non-electronic form. Electronic preservation requires protection against changes, backups, disaster recovery, and continued usability. Preserved records must remain reasonably available to the public permanently. Publishers must consider current standards, user needs, stakeholder input, practices across states, and practical compatibility with other publishers' technology. The law also calls for consistent interpretation across states adopting it. It modifies, limits, or supersedes federal electronic-signature law as it existed January 1, 2025, but preserves specified federal protections. It does not authorize electronic delivery of notices excluded under that federal law.