HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 2699        FILED ON: 1/16/2025

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 1632

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_________________

PRESENTED BY:

Leigh Davis and Michelle L. Badger

_________________

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:

Date Added:

Leigh Davis

3rd Berkshire

1/16/2025

Michelle L. Badger

1st Plymouth

6/2/2025

James B. Eldridge

Middlesex and Worcester

6/17/2025

Patrick Joseph Kearney

4th Plymouth

6/3/2025

Steven J. Ouellette

8th Bristol

7/25/2025


HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 2699        FILED ON: 1/16/2025

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 1632

By Representatives Davis of Great Barrington and Badger of Plymouth, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 1632) of Leigh Davis relative to legal advertisements in online-only newspapers.  The Judiciary.

 

[SIMILAR MATTER FILED IN PREVIOUS SESSION
SEE HOUSE, NO. 1723 OF 2023-2024.]

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

 

_______________

In the One Hundred and Ninety-Fourth General Court
(2025-2026)

_______________

 

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 2020 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.