HB 7049 – Relating to Legal Notices

On Thursday, March 10, HB 7049 by the House Judiciary Committee was read a third time on the Senate floor and passed with 26 yeas and 13 nays. The House concurred with the Senate amendment and passed the bill with 79 yeas and 40 nays.

In 2021, the Florida Legislature passed legislation that modernized public notice. It was a collective piece of legislation that took input from a variety of stakeholders, including the business community, and, importantly, ensured businesses and individuals would not lose access to critical information gained from public notice – most especially regarding private property rights, including judicial notice of sale.

The bill gives a governmental agency the option to publish legal notices on a publicly accessible website instead of in a print newspaper, essentially repealing and replacing the legislation from last year which will negatively impact businesses.

HB 7049 will now go to the Governor.

AIF opposes internet-only public notice, as it eliminates the wide net created by print media and the internet combined. Webpages are present one day and gone the next; the internet is an inherently unreliable platform for critical information.