California Legal Notices in Newspapers Explained

What are legal notices?

Millions of Californians read their local Community News and this is not just a mere coincidence, as legally once a year almost all California newspapers are required to print "legal ads." Classified advertisements that are mandatory according to California law are referred to as "legal notice." Legal notices are a traditional means of communicating a message to a body of people. Similar to public announcements, legal notices are typically formal and informative in their content.
Legal notices represent a category of public notice which is required by statute or court summons to be published in a newspaper or other periodical with the intent that it will inform the general public . These provide the text of laws and statutes, including but not limited to, changes of county tax assessments, foreclosures, authorization for improvement bonds, service of legal process, formation of districts, proposed state constitutional amendments, and local taxation issues.
Legal advertising is a combination of paid and free publicity; a paid form of communication in a newspaper, magazine or periodical, and in part a free form of communication on the part of government officials and agencies, using the newspaper for the broad dissemination of important information, laws, summons, etc. A California Legal Notice is simply that: A notice placed in a California newspaper or periodical, or magazine, pursuant to the requirement of the California Government Code, the California Civil Code, or the California Probate Code, depending upon the type of notice.

What’s needed to publish legal notices in California

In California, notice requirements are set forth in the Code of Civil Procedure (CCP). The CCP contains the stipulations that define who must give notice, how the notice should be published and for how long the notice must be run in the newspaper.
The CCP specifies that any publication of a summons, process and other legal notices and papers must be published in general circulation newspapers unless otherwise specified. A "general circulation newspaper" is defined as a newspaper that fulfills certain requirements, including:
Petitioners may not be able to publish in a newspaper other than a general circulation newspaper if there is no newspaper of general circulation printed in the place of publication.
In some counties, such as Napa County and San Francisco County, a daily newspaper is not published. Residents in counties that only have a weekly or bi-weekly publication will be required to run their legal notices in a newspaper that has general circulation and total paid circulation of more than 40,000 average users. Although there are very specific state regulations relating to legal notices in newspapers, some counties may impose their own regulations in addition to the state laws. For example, the Herb Caen Column requires all legal notices to be published in the San Francisco Chronicle in addition to the state requirements.
The above-mentioned requirements are just some of the basic requirements needed to fulfill the legal notice requirements in California. The relevant state laws include the following:

How newspapers fit into the legal notice picture

In California, the traditional method for providing notice to the public of legal matters has been through publication in a newspaper. However, only those newspapers that apply for and are designated by the State of California to publish legal notices may be used. In order to qualify, a newspaper must be published for the dissemination of local or general news and by that is meant a publication having a regular frequency in its printing schedule and by making regular and reasonable distribution of an average of 25% of its printed issues to persons other than those who are directly or indirectly financially interested in such publication. A newspaper also must have been published during the preceding 12 months of volume and meet other requirements outlined in the Government Code.
The purpose of the publication requirement is both to give the public notice of actions affecting the local community, especially foreclosures and the disposition of the property, and to alert members of the community that might have an interest in the matter that is the subject of the legal notice.
Originally, a law firm was permitted to publish the required notices as part of its primary business. Court decisions have now generally held that it is not permissible for a law firm to publish a legal notice, even if it has a newspaper-like format and is mailed or provided to others. Thus, today a qualified newspaper must be selected to effect legal notice for the sale or foreclosure.

Submitting a legal notice

Process of Submitting a Legal Notice to California Newspapers
Once you understand California legal notices and how they work, you may decide that you want to submit one yourself. In California, legal notices are published in over 1,000 newspapers, ranging from large metropolitan dailies such as the San Francisco Chronicle to tiny community weeklies. While the requirements for publication vary from region to region, the submission process is relatively standard.
Any legal notice you seek to publish in a California newspaper has you as the originating party in all matters of the transaction. However, a publisher may wish to then designate an outside agency or association to handle the transaction. Once the proposed submitted notice has been approved, the publisher will notify them that they may move forward with the submission process.
In order to make sure any legal notice reaches its audience in a reasonable time, the notice must be submitted to the newspaper in advance . You should expect to submit your notice at least 10 business days before the date you wish for the legal notice to publish. All notices submitted to a newspaper must be formatted and ready for publication without any additional fees required on the part of the newspaper or the associated publisher.
All California newspapers that accept legal advertisements are required to publish notices within a certain time period for each type of legal notice. Specifically, notices for unclaimed property are run in general circulation newspapers three times on separate dates. The first publication normally occurs 20 days before the notice is due to the claimant, the second 10 days prior, and the third on the actual date the claim is due. For deeds of trust, they must be run for a period of four weeks, with two publications occurring within 15 days of each other. Other notices have publication deadlines ranging from five days to multiple months from the agreed upon publish date.

The challenge for legal notices

California has a myriad of laws that require legal notices to be published in an approved local newspaper. This could be, for example, a notice relating to a name (DBA) change or a Mechanics Lien foreclosure sale. California Government Code section 6000 describes several different situations when this may become the case. And while most people automatically assume that this is a simple process, there are actually a few challenges and considerations one should be familiar with.
First, cost. While this article will not focus on the fees that various newspapers’ charge for legal notices, they can vary anywhere from $20 to upward of $100, depending on the paper’s classification. Knowing what to expect will be helpful so that you don’t receive an unexpected $100 bill for the above-mentioned name change notice.
Second, compliance. In order for the notice to be considered effectively published, it must be made out in full compliance with the California Government Code based on the type of notice and notice period needed. If the notice is defective and not appropriately published, you will then need to start the compliance process from the beginning. While some notices such as name change can be relatively simple, others can take a few weeks or more before it is considered fully published. Firm deadlines are not uncommon with many legal procedures and mistakes, such as a delay, can cause serious negative effects on your rights.
Third, accuracy. While this might sound obvious, it is critical to double and triple check the information on the notice itself to make sure that everything is accurate prior to submission. On many occasions I have seen notices sent to these papers with typos. Whether this is an incorrect date, time or simply a misspelling of the name, courts will generally look at these minor factual errors unfavorably in order to determine if the notice was properly published. Even if the application is denied and the notice is resubmitted, this can still cause delays.

The future of legal notices in California

California legal notices have long been a staple of the state’s newspapers, but with the advent of digital notices and the increasing demand for more cost-effective alternatives, will newspapers continue to be viable publication outlets for California legal notices in the future? That is a question that we will also answer in this article.
Newspapers have been the sole publication outlet for California legal notices since at least 1850, the year California became a state. A recent bill that sought to amend the Government Code to require certain legal notices to be published exclusively on an Electronic Notice Website, created a stir among representatives of California Newspapers publishing "public notices" throughout the state. In response to that bill, the California Newspaper Publishers’ Association ("CNPA") immediately launched a campaign to defeat the bill and actively hire lobbyists to publicly protest to the leaders of the California State Legislature and Governor to ensure that the bill never clearly exited committee to be voted on by the full legislature.
A key concern for CNPA was the impact that the bill would have on the financial viability of their member newspapers. For years, income derived from publishing California legal notices has been vital to the bottom line of most newspapers, and without that revenue stream, most newspapers may not survive. CNPA’s hard work paid off. The bill’s author agreed to shelve the bill, meaning that for now, current law will not be amended to permit digital publication of California legal notices.
While "static" digital notices have not been widely approved as an alternative to newspaper publication of California legal notices , certain legislative bills have been introduced into the California Legislature that would authorize or require public agencies to publish their statements of expenditure and revenue on a website maintained by the agency. However, none of those efforts was significant enough to spur a robust debate about the future adoption of Electronic Notice Websites or digital notices more broadly. It is possible that the future of "static" alternative publication media still lies ahead, or it could be just around the corner. It must be recalled that newspaper circulation during the "hot" market of 2006 was nearly five (5) times larger than circulation during the recent economic meltdown of 2012. So it is perhaps safe to assume that the most pressing issue for California Newspapers at this time is to deliver an effective "value proposition" to their audience to ensure that they continue to consider newspapers as a necessary "go-to" publication media.
Of course, anything is possible when it comes to future legislation in California, but one thing is certain – regardless of whether and when alternative "new" media options become a reality, California law will continue to dictate publication format, and whether printed or web-based, California "legal notices" will continue to demand that the publisher and the recipient of the notice be assured of the highest degree of publication reliability to ensure that the integrity of the notice is maintained through each step of the publication process.