Q&A – Should Florida switch public notices from newspapers to websites?
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Today’s entry: I believe you said it was a good idea to not publish notices in the newspaper? Having personally experienced issues depending upon what the notices are for, that may or may not be a good idea. If you're talking about notices filed by the sheriff's department as to legal issues,that notice should always be posted on the property as is the requirement now. I experienced a legal issue where the legal notice was posted in a private lawyers' review magazine and only by the grace of God did I find out about the notice and was able to use that improper notification to get the case thrown out. Not everyone is as savvy and by having legal notices posted on the property you will eliminate a lot of ambiguities and confusion for people who are not as up-to-date.
Bottom Line: The bill in the Florida state session that I referenced is aimed to specifically address the concerns you cited. On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee passed a bill that would end the legal requirement for various notices to be posted in newspapers. Instead, notices would be posted on websites for the government entity requiring the notice. It has a companion in the Senate but hasn’t been take up yet. In sharing the update on Friday, I did briefly advocate for the proposal.The bill stalled in the state session last year and was refiled by Representative Randy Fine. Here’s what the proposed changed would be for public notices:
- Eliminates the legal requirements to purchase print public notices in lieu of online public notices. These online notices would be posted, stored and searched on the local government website pertaining to the notification.
- For those who’d choose to use the print method, publishers of public notices would be required to provide a direct mail option.
Your example of property notices via a sheriff’s office notification wouldn’t be impacted by this law. In fact, nothing would change if you wouldn’t want it to. What this law would do is provide a potentially free method of complying with public notice requests for both governments and individuals. This has the potential to save hundreds of dollars for each notification. It also modernizes the notification laws which were crafted when only print notification was an option. If the true intent of public notifications is the dissemination of information to all potentially impacted/interested parties – this makes perfect sense.
According to the Pew Research Center, as of 2018, only 15% of households received a daily newspaper, with circulation levels at the lowest since 1940. This compares to 86% of households that use the internet daily. Clearly the online method has the greatest opportunity to reach the most people. Also, the idea regarding direct mail is a good idea as well – if you do want to use print. Having the notices sent to those who the notices are intended to reach is far more logical than notices published in a paper that might reach fewer than 1 in 5 intended targets. As I briefly mentioned on Friday, this to me is a win for everyone except newspapers. This has long been a forced revenue stream for them and they’re fighting hard to keep it intact. I hope they’re unsuccessful.