Public legal notices bill in Legislature prompts concerns

Negotiations are underway regarding a bill that will allow legal notices to appear online on newspaper websites as opposed to requiring that they be in print.

The Nevada Association of Counties is backing Senate Bill 22, which would allow legal notifications to be published to newspaper websites.

Nevada Press Association President Daniel Rothberg said the group is monitoring the bill and has discussed it with the board.

“There was a lot of opposition to it in its current form,” he said. “We’re also very concerned about the geographic language that could change where legal notices can be printed.”

At their Feb. 16, meeting, Douglas County commissioners supported the bill.

“A lot of small counties on the east side of the state are closing up their newspapers and are struggling with the requirement to publish in the newspaper,” County Manager Patrick Cates said.

At a Feb. 2 meeting, Commissioner Sharla Hales, who served as the attorney for the Churchill County School District for many years, expressed concerns about the bill.

“I know that some rural newspapers are having trouble staying solvent,” Hales said. “I would hate to do this and put under a newspaper.”

Nevada law requires publication of a variety of legal notices and advertisements in “newspapers of general circulation” and establishes requirements.

“This bill authorizes the publication of a legal notice or advertisement on the Internet website of such a newspaper,” according to the Legislative Counsel’s Digest.

Press officials have expressed concerns about internet access for parts of rural Nevada when discussing previous versions of the bill.

A report issued by the Federal Communications Commission in 2020 indicated just under half of rural Nevadans have reliable service.

The Record-Courier and many publications in the state publish legal notices both in the actual newspaper and online.

Current law requires a publication to continuously publish for the 104 consecutive weeks to qualify for legal notices. Moving the publication from one part of a county to another, as The R-C moved from Gardnerville to Minden, doesn’t affect the continuity under the law.

Legal notices support publications across the state with some providing a majority of the revenue in counties with smaller populations.

The Record-Courier has reached out to the counties association for comment on the bill.