Senate President Scutari has introduced S-4654, which provides for the publication of required legal notices on government internet websites and through certain online news publications. This legislation provides a permanent solution to the requirement of publishing public notices online.
Under the legislation, starting March 1, 2026. local governments (municipalities, counties, school districts, special districts) must publish their legal notices on their official websites. The bill defines local notices as “any resolution, official proclamation, notice or advertisement of any sort, kind, or character, including proposals for bids on public work and otherwise, required by law or by the order or rule of any court to be published by a public entity, corporation, an individual, or any other entity.” The website must be accessible, free of charge, with the items conspicuously placed on the website. Notices must be displayed for at least one week, or other time period as required by law, before transferring the notice to the archive. The notices must be archived for at least one year. The archive is not subject to the records retention schedule established by the State Records Committee or the Destruction of Public Records law.
In addition, the local unit must provide a hyperlink of the public notice webpage to the Secretary of State, who by March 1, 2026, must have a website with hyperlinks to all public notice pages. Public entities will be responsible for providing the Secretary of State’s office with updates to the hyperlinks as needed.
The local unit must also publish public notices from January 1 to December 31, 2026, twice a month with the link to the municipality’s webpage for official notices. The notice must include complete text that each legal notice of the local unit may be obtained or viewed on the public entity’s official website, and provide the hyperlink.
- Legal notices published on a public entity’s Internet website or the Internet website of an online news publication shall not be deemed defective if at least one of the following circumstances exists:
- There is an error in the content or form due to a clerical, administrative, or any other error outside of the control of the public entity, corporation, or individual required by law or court order or rule to publish the legal notice.
- Temporary outage, technical malfunction, disruption, or service interruption preventing the publishing, posting, or display of a legal notice on the public entity’s Internet website or online news publication.
- The operator of the public entity’s Internet website or the online news publication imposes standard restrictions that prevent access to the website or online news publication.
- Subject to a cyberattack or cybersecurity incident, including but not limited to ransomware or a data breach, causing the failure to timely or accurately publish the legal notice.
- Any other circumstances preventing the publishing, posting, or display of a legal notice that are outside of the control of the public entity, corporation, or individual required by law or court order or rule to publish the legal notice.
A municipality may also publish legal notices in a print or online newspaper if they choose but they still must publish them on their municipal website. If a local unit uses an online news publication, it must prominently display on its website a hyperlink to the online news publication. Online newspapers must publish any legal notices they receive within 24 hours of receipt. Cost to publish online notices cannot exceed the rate established in N.J.S.A. 35:2-1.
“Online news publication” is defined as a news publication in electronic format that contains news on matters of public concern and has published news predominantly in the English language at least once per week for at least one year continuously. An online newspaper must use an easily recognizable and understandable domain name; must be fully accessible and searchable by keyword, party name, case number, by county or other useful identifiers to the public at all times; ensure notices comply with the legal requirements; maintain an archive for one year; display the notices at least once per week or statutorily required timeframe; maintain adequate security; not charge a fee or require registration or subscription to view legal notices; maintain a media liability insurance of up to $1 million; been in continuous operation for at least three years; and provide a number of monthly unique website visits by county.
To qualify as an online news publication that can publish legal notices, the online news publication must receive:
- Municipal: an average of 4,000 unique monthly visits with no less than 50% from IP addresses within the municipality or a 10-mile radius of the municipality.
- County: an average of 50,000 unique monthly visits with no less than 50% from IP addresses within the county or a 10-mile radius of the county.
- Statewide: an average of 350,000 unique monthly visits with no less than 50% from IP addresses within the State.
The bill also addresses public notices required by non-public entities. Such notices must be published in an online news publication. The online news publication must be based on the geographic target.
Finally, the bill extends the provisions of P.L. 2025, c. 22, the existing law on public notices, from June 30, 2025, to March 1, 2026.
S-4654 could be considered by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee as early as this week. At this time, there is no Assembly companion bill.
Contact: Lori Buckelew, Deputy Executive Director, lbuckelew@njlm.org or 609-695-3481 ext. 112.