2017 - 2018 LEGISLATURE
March 2, 2017 - Introduced by Joint Legislative Council. Referred to Committee
on Judiciary.
AB120,1,2 1An Act to create 985.075 of the statutes; relating to: information required to
2be included in class 2 and class 3 legal notices.
Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau
This bill is explained in the Notes provided by the Joint Legislative Council in
the bill.
The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do
enact as follows:
Joint Legislative Council prefatory note: This bill was prepared for the Joint
Legislative Council's Study Committee on Publication of Government Documents and
Legal Notices.
Background. Under current law, publication of a legal notice may be prescribed
as a Class 1, 2, or 3 notice, where the class of notice corresponds to the frequency of
required insertions. For example, a Class 2 notice must be published once a week for two
consecutive weeks and a Class 3 notice must be published once a week for three
consecutive weeks. Generally, when multiple insertions are prescribed, the last insertion
must occur at least one week before the act or event to which the notice relates.
The bill. The bill allows a municipality the option to publish a summary, instead
of publishing any full-text content that may be required under current law, for the second
and third insertions that are required for publication of Class 2 and 3 notices, if the
summarized notice also indicates that the full-text content may be viewed at the
following sources:
1. The newspaper in which the initial insertion of the Class 2 or 3 notice was
published.

2. The municipal website.
3. The Wisconsin Newspapers Association legal notices website.
4. A physical location maintained by the municipality.
The authority to summarize the content of a notice under the bill does not apply
to a legal notice required to be published by a municipality by order of a court.
AB120,1 1Section 1. 985.075 of the statutes is created to read:
AB120,2,4 2985.075 Substance of 2nd and 3rd insertions. (1) In this section,
3“summary” means a brief, precise, and plain-language description that can be easily
4understood.
AB120,2,12 5(2) Except as provided in sub. (3), when a governing body of a municipality is
6required by law to publish a legal notice as a class 2 notice or a class 3 notice, the
7governing body may, for the 2nd and 3rd insertions and in lieu of publishing the full
8text of the material required to be included in the first insertion of the legal notice,
9publish a summary of the material included in the first insertion in the same manner
10in which the first insertion was published. The governing body shall ensure that the
11summary is accompanied by a notice that the full text of the material included in the
12first insertion is available for viewing at all of the following locations:
AB120,2,1313 (a) As an electronic document on the governing body's Internet site.
AB120,2,1414 (b) In the newspaper in which the initial insertion was published.
AB120,2,1615 (c) As an electronic document on the Wisconsin newspapers legal notices
16Internet site.
AB120,2,1717 (d) In a readily accessible physical location within the municipality.
AB120,2,19 18(3) This section does not apply to a legal notice required to be published by a
19municipality by order of a court.
AB120,2,2020 (End)
Loading...
Loading...