Virginia becomes first state in US to permit legal notices in online-only publications

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin this week signed into law the nation’s first legislation permitting legal notices to appear in online-only publications.

Twin bills (HB 264 and SB 157) crafted in partnership by four online-only publishers and the Henrico-based Virginia Press Association passed the Virginia General Assembly in February with overwhelming bipartisan majorities and were signed by Youngkin April 2. The new law will take effect July 1 and will make online-only publishers in Virginia eligible to publish the notices if they meet specific criteria and earn authorization from their local circuit court.

The bills’ passage this year came after several unsuccessful efforts to pass similar legislation during the previous six-year period.

ARLNow.com, FFXNow.com and ALXNow.com Publisher Scott Brodbeck and Page Valley News Publisher Randy Arrington were instrumental in leading the push to update the law; Citizen Publisher Tom Lappas and MadRapp Recorder Editor Chuck Jackson also were among the group of four involved with the effort. Each publication expects to petition courts later this year to be certified for legal notice publication.

“The way people consume local news is changing, and it’s important that the law reflects that,” Lappas said. “This measure doesn’t require that these notices be placed in online-only publications, it merely provides them as another option and should help ensure that these messages reach the people for whom they are intended.”

Current state law mandates that legal notices – which provide information about government meetings, requests from restaurants seeking liquor licenses and a number of other matters – be placed in qualifying print publications that publish at least weekly.

But because some localities or regions of the state are not served directly by such publications, notices intended for residents of those localities may not be seen by many of them. In other localities, online-only publications have become the dominant sources of local news and surpassed print publications in breadth of coverage and overall readership.

Legal notices are considered a key aspect of government transparency and have been required for centuries.

HB 264 was patroned by Del. Patrick Hope (D-Arlington), while SB 157 was patroned by Sen. Jennifer Boysko (D-Fairfax) and Sen. Mark Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg).

“With the sharp growth in local online news publications, print newspapers are no longer the only source readers turn to obtain information,” Hope said. “Legal notices belong in a place that will be seen, and in many communities, that is an online publication.”

Said Boysko: ““Updating our laws to reflect the continued growth of online news publications makes sense. I was happy to carry this legislation which reflects the work done by the Virginia Press Association and the online-only news publications to reach an agreement on what will qualify as a newspaper of record.”

The law requires, among other things, that in order to qualify to publish legal notices, an online-only news site in Virginia must:

• employ local news staff;
• have been in business for at least two years with a Virginia State Corporation Commission entity registration;
• have its own dedicated and registered domain name;
• be published exclusively online;
• publish regularly updated general news coverage of the area in which the notice is required to be published;
• have published at least once per week for at least 50 out of the preceding 52 weeks;
• have a clear and easily found link to the public notice section on its website homepage;
• allow any user to access public notices free of charge.

Approval from a circuit court will permit a qualifying online-only site to publish legal notices for one year, a term that can be renewed annually through a two-part process using data analytics and an affidavit certifying that the publication still meets all requirements. A web-traffic audit will be required every third year in order for renewal.

“We supported this legislation because it utilizes local newspapers and news websites to provide the public with maximum transparency,” said VPA Executive Director Betsy Edwards.