New Jersey Modernizes Legal Notice Requirements With Online Publicatio

On June 30, 2025, Governor Murphy signed Senate Bill No. 4654 into law, marking a sweeping reform of the State’s legal notice laws, significantly changing how public notices are published and accessed. Effective March 1, 2026, New Jersey will require that most legal notices be posted online, which is a shift away from traditional print newspapers in favor of government websites and online news platforms. According to the new law, all public entities, including municipalities, counties, and state agencies, must publish legal notices on their official websites. These websites must be accessible to the public free of charge, and a prominent hyperlink to the legal notices page must be placed on each website’s homepage. In addition, the Secretary of State is tasked with creating a centralized webpage that links to every public entity in the State’s legal notices to further ensure public access.

Public entities must also maintain an online archive of their legal notices for at least one year. Importantly, private parties, such as developers, corporations, and other non-public entities, stand to benefit from new framework. Private parties have legal requirement to post public notices in most land use matters, and in legal proceedings when ordered by Courts or as required by statute. Under the new requirements, non-public entities may publish public notices on a qualifying online news publication . Online publication will likely eliminate the long lead times for print publications that hindered developers and other private parties. The new law does not designate a specific list of qualified news publications, however, any online news publication must meet eligibility criteria, including audience size, geographic reach, free public access, searchable access, and archive...

The legislation, however, does not eliminate the use of traditional media. Until March 1, 2026, legal notices may be published in eligible print newspapers or in accordance with the new online standards. Additionally, public entities must advertise at least twice monthly in an eligible online news publication to inform the public where full legal notices may be viewed online and to provide a link to the... This legislation represents a pivotal change for New Jersey’s notice regime, offering faster publication, greater flexibility, and modernized access for the digital age. However, it also imposes new compliance responsibilities on government bodies and private parties. Public entities should begin reviewing their websites to ensure full compliance by the March 1, 2026, deadline.

Likewise, developers and other businesses with legal notice obligations should ensure they identify and utilize online news publications that meet the statutory criteria. On June 30, 2025, Governor Murphy signed Senate Bill No. 4654 into law, marking a sweeping reform of the State’s legal notice laws, significantly changing how public notices are published and accessed. Effective March 1, 2026, New Jersey will require that most legal notices be posted online, which is a shift away from traditional print newspapers in favor of government websites and online news platforms. According to the new law, all public entities, including municipalities, counties, and state agencies, must publish legal notices on their official websites. These websites must be accessible to the public free of charge, and a prominent hyperlink to the legal notices page must be placed on each website’s homepage.

In addition, the Secretary of State is tasked with creating a centralized webpage that links to every public entity in the State’s legal notices to further ensure public access. Public entities must also maintain an online archive of their legal notices for at least one year. Importantly, private parties, such as developers, corporations, and other non-public entities, stand to benefit from new framework. Private parties have legal requirement to post public notices in most land use matters, and in legal proceedings when ordered by Courts or as required by statute. Under the new requirements, non-public entities may publish public notices on a qualifying online news publication . Online publication will likely eliminate the long lead times for print publications that hindered developers and other private parties.

The new law does not designate a specific list of qualified news publications, however, any online news publication must meet eligibility criteria, including audience size, geographic reach, free public access, searchable access, and archive... The legislation, however, does not eliminate the use of traditional media. Until March 1, 2026, legal notices may be published in eligible print newspapers or in accordance with the new online standards. Additionally, public entities must advertise at least twice monthly in an eligible online news publication to inform the public where full legal notices may be viewed online and to provide a link to the... This legislation represents a pivotal change for New Jersey’s notice regime, offering faster publication, greater flexibility, and modernized access for the digital age. However, it also imposes new compliance responsibilities on government bodies and private parties.

Public entities should begin reviewing their websites to ensure full compliance by the March 1, 2026, deadline. Likewise, developers and other businesses with legal notice obligations should ensure they identify and utilize online news publications that meet the statutory criteria. On June 30, 2025, Governor Murphy signed into law new requirements for the publication of legal notices. Under the new law, as set forth in N.J.S. 35:3-1 et seq., legal notice publication by both public entities and private entities that were once required to be published in print newspapers must be published on official digital platforms. The new law aims to preserve transparency, reduce costs and improve public access to essential legal notices in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

Historically, legal notices in New Jersey were required to be published in local or regional print newspapers, for matters such as public bids, ordinances, foreclosures, governmental meetings and land use applications. Many have argued publication in the print newspaper is costly, outdated, has limited reach, and fails to reflect a modern approach to information consumption. Applicability to New Jersey Municipal Land Use Law (MLUL), N.J.S. 40:55D: While the public notice as required by the MLUL will now be published on a public entity website and/or eligible online news publication website, the MLUL notice requirements essentially remain unchanged: The new public notice provisions will require municipalities, land use applicants and land use practitioners to revamp their internal notice procedures to ensure compliance with the statute and the MLUL.

It will be important for practitioners to understand the process, including how to post public notices and to maintain records of the digital public notices so as to provide proof of notice where required. The statute modernizes the approach to legal notice requirements, providing further transparency, efficiency and reach to the public at large but requires a new and careful approach to ensure that land use applications and... New legislation in New Jersey modernizes how legal notices are published. Effective March 1, 2026, the law replaces the traditional requirement of newspaper publication with digital notice via government websites and qualified online news outlets. The law applies to both private parties and government entities. Private parties, defined as corporations, individuals, and other non-government entities, must use eligible online news publications.

To be eligible, an online news publication needs to meet the following criteria, among other things: Publication fees must not exceed those in R.S.35:2-1. Legal notices must be published within 24 hours unless otherwise required by law or court order. The law also attempts to balance online notices with typical issues inherent with digital media. To that end, legal notices will remain valid despite technical errors, cyberattacks, or service outages beyond the publisher’s control. The same applies to standard web access limitations and administrative mistakes.

For government entities, legal notices must be posted on the entity’s official website, which must be publicly accessible, free of charge, and include a direct link to the legal notices page. Public entities no longer are required to publish meeting notices in newspapers under a new law Gov. Phil Murphy signed on June 30, 2025. (Photo by New Jersey Monitor) Legislation signed by Gov. Phil Murphy Monday evening ended the state’s decades-long practice of requiring publication of public notices in newspapers.

The measure comes after the Star-Ledger, the state’s largest daily newspaper, announced it would cease printing in February, along with other smaller papers the company owns. That left several municipalities and counties without an official newspaper to publish notices of town meetings, planning board applications, foreclosures, and bid solicitations, as mandated under the state’s Open Public Meetings Act. Now, under the new law, public entities will be required to publish or advertise legal notices on their official website beginning March 1, 2026, with digital publication of such notices optional until that date. The law requires that the websites be free and accessible, with a direct hyperlink to legal notices placed “conspicuously” on the homepage. The secretary of state also would help set up a website to include notices from public entities statewide. Public agencies will be required to display notices on the website for at least one week and store them in an online archive for at least one year afterward.

Local governments will not be required to maintain an archive until July 1, 2026, according to the measure. On June 30, 2025, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed Senate Bill No. 4654, which was introduced on June 16, 2025, into law, enacting significant reforms to the state’s requirements for the publication or advertisement of legal notices. Traditionally, legal notices are required to be published in printed newspapers to afford the public notice of municipal and county meetings. Since many print newspapers in New Jersey ended daily print publication, the new law revises the manner in which legal notices are to be communicated to the public. Effective March 1, 2026, all governmental and public entities will be required to publish or advertise legal notices electronically on their own official website.

Such websites will be required to clearly link to legal notices on its home page and be accessible and available to the public without charge. All governmental and public entities will be required to maintain public notices on the website for a minimum of a week, or the time required by law, before transferring the notice to archives and... A local government unit is not required to maintain an archive until July 1, 2026. The State is required to create a webpage under the Secretary of State’s website which links to the legal notice page for each public entity. Effective January 1, 2026, governmental entities may, in addition to the publication on its official Internet website, advertise a legal notice in an “eligible online news publication.” Any corporation, individual, or other entity that is not a public entity and is required by law or a court order or court rule to publish or advertise a legal notice will be required...

Corporations, individuals, or other entities shall select an “online news publication” based on the geographic target as established or implied under the law, court order or court rules requiring publication. On June 30, 2025, Gov. Phil Murphy signed public notice reform legislation into law. The new law (S-4654/A-5878) requires – beginning March 1, 2026 – a public entity to publish or advertise legal notices on its official website. The new law also mandates that private entities required to publish legal notices do so on an online news publication. To avoid compliance missteps, we strongly encourage land use applicants and municipal officials to be proactive in familiarizing themselves with the new requirements.

This new law will affect both private developers and land use applicants, as well as municipal clerk’s offices. The modernization of New Jersey’s legal notice requirements respond to the fact that paper newspapers are quickly becoming scarce in the digital age and online publications are often subject to pay walls. The new law also aims to provide greater accessibility to the public and boost government efficiency. Below are several key provisions: Finally, S-4654/A-5878 extends the provisions of two prior laws that provided temporary relief from the requirement that all public notices be published in print newspapers. Applicants and public entities may continue to use print or electronic newspapers for legal notices.

Land use applications and approvals often require notice publication pursuant to New Jersey’s Municipal Land Use Law (MLUL). Specifically, the MLUL mandates that notice must be sent by certified mail to all property owners within 200 feet of the subject property. Additionally, notice must be published in an official newspaper of general circulation in the municipality at least 10 days prior to the scheduled public hearing. By Donald Scarinci, August 02 2025 1:29 pm New Jersey recently became one of several states to embrace the digital age by allowing municipalities to post legal notices on their websites rather than publish them in local newspapers. Under legislation (S-4654/A-5878) signed into law by Gov.

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