Amendment #21 to H4397

Electronic Publication of Certain Legal Notices

Mr. Roy of Franklin moves to amend the bill by inserting the following new sections:

SECTION X.    Chapter 66 of the General Laws is amended by adding Paragraphs 2 through 6 of this act as a new Section 6A.

SECTION X.    This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Electronic Publication of Legal Notices Act."             

SECTION X.    Whenever anyone is required by law to publish a legal notice in a “newspaper” or “newspaper of general circulation”, the newspaper shall, in addition to print publication, publish the required notice on the newspaper's own  website and on the statewide website established and maintained as a cooperative effort of the majority of Massachusetts newspapers as a repository for such notices. If a newspaper does not have a website of it’s own, then publication on the statewide side shall suffice. In publishing legal notices online, newspapers shall meet the following requirements:

a. The site must be accessible to the public over the Internet at all times, other than during maintenance or due to causes beyond the operator’s control; and

b. The government entity’s official Internet web site shall prominently display a link to the newspapers' statewide notice website; and

c. The newspapers' statewide notice site shall provide the full text of notices and shall be fully searchable by members of the public; and

d. The newspapers' shall use best efforts to ensure that the statewide notice website substantially complies with the accessibility standards of section 508 of the "Rehabilitation Act of 1973," as amended (29 U.S.C. s.794d); and

e.Notices shall remain available on the newspapers' statewide website for at least the duration by the notice or by any statute, regulation, court rule or court order governing the notice; and                           

f.No person shall be charged a fee to access public notices on a newspaper's website or on the newspapers' statewide website or to view notices or advertisements or to perform searches of such websites, provided that newspapers may charge a fee for enhanced search and customized content delivery features; and

g.No fee shall be charged to a state agency or political subdivision for publishing a notice or advertisement on the web site in excess of the fee for publishing the notice or advertisement in the print newspaper; and

h. The newspapers' statewide website shall maintain an archive of notices and advertisements for at least 90 days after they are no longer displayed on the web site; and

i.Newspapers shall enable notices and advertisements, both those currently displayed and those archived, to be accessed by key word, by municipality, by county and by publication; and

j.Newspapers shall maintain adequate systemic security and backup features, and develop and maintain a contingency plan for coping with and recovering from power outages, systemic failures, and other unforeseeable difficulties; and

k.A newspaper of general circulation shall include on its web site a link to the newspapers' statewide public notice web site.

SECTION X. The requirements of a statewide web site shall not take effect until 180 days after passage of this law.