On Nov. 20, Gov. Tony Evers signed into law a provision allowing for the electronic processing of a newspaper legal notices and corresponding affidavits.
Wisconsin Act 32 became law following its Nov. 21 publication in the state newspaper, the Wisconsin State Journal. The act states:
985.12 Proof of publication.
(1) Affidavit of printing. The affidavit of the editor, publisher, printer or proprietor of any newspaper, or of his or her foreman or principal clerk, of the publication of any legal notice, annexed to a copy of the notice clipped from the newspaper in either hard copy or electronic format, and specifying the date of each insertion, and the paper in which it was published, shall be received in all cases as presumptive evidence of the publication and of the facts stated therein.
Previously, publishers were required to send public notice clients like municipalities a clipping of the published notice, along with a hard-copy affidavit.
Following the passage of Wisconsin Act 32, publishers can instead send an electronic copy of the legal notice and affidavit.
Best Practices for Sending Electronic Affidavits
The WNA recommends as a “best practice” that the affidavit and the legal notice be sent to the advertiser in PDF format. Unlike a TIFF, JPEG or GIF file a PDF is a read-only document that cannot be altered without leaving an electronic footprint of any attempt to change the document. As an electronic document that is read-only and that will leave an electronic trail if altered, a PDF meets the requirements for legal admissibility in a court of law.
All Wisconsin newspapers are required to upload all pages of the newspaper to the WNA public notice website. The use of the PDF’d page on which the notice appeared that is uploaded to the WNA as proof of publication, along with the copy and/or scan of the affidavit will meet the new electronic format requirement found in the Affidavit of Printing 985.12(1) statute.
For questions regarding the new electronic affidavit statute please contact WNA Executive Director, Beth Bennett at 608-283-7621 or by email at Beth.Bennett@WNAnews.com.
