Florida Senate - 2019                                    SB 1710
       
       
        
       By Senator Diaz
       
       
       
       
       
       36-01821-19                                           20191710__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to legal and official advertisements;
    3         amending ss. 50.011, 50.021, 50.0211, and 50.031,
    4         F.S.; authorizing the publication of legal and
    5         official advertisements on specified publicly
    6         accessible governmental websites in lieu of
    7         publication in a newspaper; providing an effective
    8         date.
    9          
   10  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   11  
   12         Section 1. Section 50.011, Florida Statutes, is amended to
   13  read:
   14         50.011 Where and in what language legal notices to be
   15  published.—Whenever by statute an official or a legal
   16  advertisement or a publication, or notice in a newspaper has
   17  been or is directed or permitted in the nature of or in lieu of
   18  process, or for constructive service, or in initiating,
   19  assuming, reviewing, exercising or enforcing jurisdiction or
   20  power, or for any purpose, including all legal notices and
   21  advertisements of sheriffs and tax collectors, the
   22  contemporaneous and continuous intent and meaning of such
   23  legislation all and singular, existing or repealed, is and has
   24  been and is hereby declared to be and to have been, and the rule
   25  of interpretation is and has been, a publication in a newspaper
   26  printed and published periodically once a week or more
   27  frequently oftener, containing at least 25 percent of its words
   28  in the English language, entered or qualified to be admitted and
   29  entered as periodicals matter at a post office in the county
   30  where published, for sale to the public generally, available to
   31  the public generally for the publication of official or other
   32  notices and customarily containing information of a public
   33  character or of interest or of value to the residents or owners
   34  of property in the county where published, or of interest or of
   35  value to the general public. Notwithstanding any other provision
   36  of law, the publication of a notice or an advertisement on a
   37  publicly accessible website maintained by a county or
   38  municipality constitutes legal notice for purposes of this
   39  section.
   40         Section 2. Section 50.021, Florida Statutes, is amended to
   41  read:
   42         50.021 Publication when no newspaper in county.—
   43         (1) When any law, or order or decree of court, directs
   44  shall direct advertisements to be made in any county and there
   45  be no newspaper is published in such the said county, the
   46  advertisement may be made by posting three copies of the
   47  advertisement thereof in three different locations within the
   48  places in said county, one of which must shall be at the front
   49  door of the courthouse, and by publication in the nearest county
   50  in which a newspaper is published.
   51         (2) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a county,
   52  municipality, or dependent special district may publish such an
   53  advertisement on a publicly accessible website maintained by a
   54  county or municipality in lieu of the notice required under
   55  subsection (1).
   56         Section 3. Subsection (2) of section 50.0211, Florida
   57  Statutes, is amended, and subsection (5) is added to that
   58  section, to read:
   59         50.0211 Internet website publication.—
   60         (2) If legal notice is published in a newspaper, each such
   61  legal notice must be posted on the newspaper’s website on the
   62  same day that the printed notice appears in the newspaper, at no
   63  additional charge, in a separate web page titled “Legal
   64  Notices,” “Legal Advertising,” or comparable identifying
   65  language. A link to the legal notices web page shall be provided
   66  on the front page of the newspaper’s website that provides
   67  access to the legal notices. If there is a specified size and
   68  placement required for a printed legal notice, the size and
   69  placement of the notice on the newspaper’s website must optimize
   70  its online visibility in keeping with the print requirements.
   71  The newspaper’s web pages that contain legal notices must
   72  present the legal notices as the dominant and leading subject
   73  matter of those pages. The newspaper’s website must contain a
   74  search function to facilitate searching the legal notices. A fee
   75  may not be charged, and registration may not be required, for
   76  viewing or searching legal notices on a newspaper’s website if
   77  the legal notice is published in a newspaper.
   78         (5) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the
   79  publication of a notice or an advertisement on a publicly
   80  accessible website maintained by a county or municipality
   81  constitutes legal notice for purposes of this section.
   82         Section 4. Section 50.031, Florida Statutes, is amended to
   83  read:
   84         50.031 Newspapers in which legal notices and process may be
   85  published.—No notice or publication required to be published in
   86  a newspaper in the nature of or in lieu of process of any kind,
   87  nature, character or description provided for under any law of
   88  the state, whether heretofore or hereafter enacted, and whether
   89  pertaining to constructive service, or the initiating, assuming,
   90  reviewing, exercising or enforcing jurisdiction or power, by any
   91  court in this state, or any notice of sale of property, real or
   92  personal, for taxes, state, county or municipal, or sheriff’s,
   93  guardian’s or administrator’s or any sale made pursuant to any
   94  judicial order, decree or statute or any other publication or
   95  notice pertaining to any affairs of the state, or any county,
   96  municipality or other political subdivision thereof, shall be
   97  deemed to have been published in accordance with the statutes
   98  providing for such publication, unless the same shall have been
   99  published for the prescribed period of time required for such
  100  publication, in a newspaper which at the time of such
  101  publication shall have been in existence for 1 year and shall
  102  have been entered as periodicals matter at a post office in the
  103  county where published, or in a newspaper which is a direct
  104  successor of a newspaper which together have been so published;
  105  provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall apply
  106  where in any county there shall be no newspaper in existence
  107  which shall have been published for the length of time above
  108  prescribed. No legal publication of any kind, nature or
  109  description, as herein defined, shall be valid or binding or
  110  held to be in compliance with the statutes providing for such
  111  publication unless the same shall have been published in
  112  accordance with the provisions of this section. Proof of such
  113  publication shall be made by uniform affidavit. Notwithstanding
  114  any other provision of law, the publication of a notice or an
  115  advertisement on a publicly accessible website maintained by a
  116  county or municipality constitutes legal notice for purposes of
  117  this section.
  118         Section 5. This act shall take effect July 1, 2019.