SENATE DOCKET, NO. 953        FILED ON: 1/18/2023

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 1137

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

John C. Velis

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act relative to legal advertisements in online-only newspapers.

_______________

PETITION OF:

 

Name:

District/Address:

 

John C. Velis

Hampden and Hampshire

 

James B. Eldridge

Middlesex and Worcester

3/6/2023

Michael O. Moore

Second Worcester

3/17/2023

Carmine Lawrence Gentile

13th Middlesex

10/10/2023


SENATE DOCKET, NO. 953        FILED ON: 1/18/2023

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 1137

By Mr. Velis, a petition (accompanied by bill, Senate, No. 1137) of John C. Velis and James B. Eldridge for legislation relative to legal advertisements in online-only newspapers.  The Judiciary.

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

 

_______________

In the One Hundred and Ninety-Third General Court
(2023-2024)

_______________

 

An Act relative to legal advertisements in online-only newspapers.

 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Subsection (b) of section 13 of chapter 4 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2022 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding the following sentence:- Provided further, that for an online-only newspaper that does not maintain a print publication, publication on its own website and on a statewide website shall satisfy the publication requirement.

SECTION 2. Subsection (d) of said section 13 of said chapter 4, as so appearing, is hereby amended by adding the following sentence:- For an online-only newspaper, an error in a legal notice published on the online-only newspaper's website or the statewide website that is the result of (1) an error of the website operator; or (2) a temporary website outage or service interruption that prevents the publication or display of a legal notice on the website, shall not constitute a defect in publication of the legal notice; provided, however, that the legal notice appears correctly on either the online-only newspaper's website or the statewide website, and satisfies all other legal notice requirements.