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The Florida Senate

CS/HB 7049 — Legal Notices

by State Affairs Committee; Judiciary Committee; and Reps. Grall, Fine, and others

This summary is provided for information only and does not represent the opinion of any Senator, Senate Officer, or Senate Office.

Prepared by: Rules Committee (RC)

The bill allows a local governmental agency the option to publish legal notices on a publicly accessible website owned or designated by the county instead of in a print newspaper under specified conditions. The bill reverts the criteria a newspaper must satisfy to be qualified to publish all legal notices back to the criteria in place before the passage of chapter 2021-17, Laws of Fla., with the exception that newspapers qualified to publish legal notices are no longer required to be for sale. It requires a governmental agency located in a county that has a population of fewer than 160,000 to first hold a public hearing and determine that its residents have sufficient access to the Internet by broadband service before publishing legally required advertisements and public notices on the county website. Finally, the bill eliminates the obligations of the Florida Press Association relating to equitable legal notice access by minority populations.

If approved by the Governor, these provisions take effect July 1, 2023. 

Vote: Senate 26-13; House 79-40