Title 35: Legal Advertisements

Section 1: Legal Paraphrase

Title 35 of the New Jersey Revised Statutes governs the publication of legal advertisements and official notices throughout the State. N.J.S.A. 35:1-1 defines "official advertising" and "official advertisements" to include all matters required by law to be published, and N.J.S.A. 35:1-2 establishes which newspapers qualify as "legal newspapers" for that purpose — generally, English-language newspapers printed and published in New Jersey at least once weekly for at least one year, with additional qualifications (N.J.S.A. 35:1-2.1, 35:1-2.2) for the publication of State, county, and municipal notices. Chapter 2 (N.J.S.A. 35:2-1 et seq.) fixes the rates chargeable for official advertising and limits where such advertising may be placed, while Chapter 3 (N.J.S.A. 35:3-1 et seq.) modernizes the scheme by requiring public entities to post legal notices on official government websites. Because many other statutes require notice "by publication," Title 35 ensures such notices reach the public reliably and uniformly.

Section 2: ELI-10 Explanation

Think of Title 35 as the rulebook for the town's "public announcement board." When a town wants to change a law, sell property to pay overdue taxes, or hold a public hearing, it must put the announcement in the newspaper as a "legal ad." This law says exactly which newspapers may carry those ads — real papers printed in New Jersey, not just any publication — how many times each notice must run, and exactly how much the paper may charge, like a price tag set by law. Why? Because the government is about to do something that affects you, and it must give you a fair chance to find out and speak up. Title 35 makes sure the notice is real, visible, and affordable — like making certain the flier on the school bulletin board is big enough for every student to read before the big vote.

Section 3: General Application & Case Example 1

How It Is Applied

Title 35 touches nearly every government action that must be publicized: municipal ordinance adoptions, land-use and planning-board hearings, tax-sale and foreclosure notices, sheriff's sales of real property, bond referenda, and State agency notices. Its central mechanism is designation and qualification. Only "legal newspapers" — English-language papers printed and published in New Jersey at least once weekly for at least one year (N.J.S.A. 35:1-2) — may carry official advertisements, and stricter requirements govern State, county, and municipal advertising (N.J.S.A. 35:1-2.1, 35:1-2.2), including conditions on circulation, news content, and where the paper is physically printed. Governing bodies designate an "official newspaper" to receive their legal advertising, and Chapter 2 caps the rates such papers may charge, keyed to net paid circulation. Because defective publication can invalidate the underlying proceeding, both officials and rival newspapers regularly litigate whether a designated paper truly qualifies.

Case Example

• Case Name & Citation: Courier-Post Newspaper v. County of Camden, 413 N.J. Super. 372 (App. Div. 2010)
• Statute Applied: N.J.S.A. 35:1-2.2 (qualifications of newspapers for county legal advertising); N.J.S.A. 35:2-1 (rates for official advertising)
• Brief Summary: Camden County and its Sheriff designated The Philadelphia Inquirer — an out-of-state newspaper — to publish county and sheriff's legal notices, at rates below those fixed by N.J.S.A. 35:2-1. The Courier-Post, the incumbent legal newspaper, sued in lieu of prerogative writs. The Appellate Division held that the Inquirer is not "printed and published within the State of New Jersey" under N.J.S.A. 35:1-2.2: it is physically printed on newsprint in Pennsylvania, and its availability on the Internet does not satisfy the statutory requirement. For the same reason it was not "printed and published" in Camden County for sheriff's notices under N.J.S.A. 2A:61-1. The court also held the below-statutory-rate agreement violates N.J.S.A. 35:2-1, reversed, and remanded with direction that future advertising comply with the statutes prospectively, while concluding the local-preference rules do not violate the Commerce Clause because the government acts as a market participant.
• Source Link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12424312039590357441

Section 4: ELI-10 Application & Case Example 2

Real World Example (Explained Simply)

Imagine your town must announce a public meeting about building a new park. By law, the announcement must run in the town's official newspaper as a legal ad. Title 35 is like a very strict receipt: it says the ad must go in a real local paper, and it fixes exactly how much the paper may charge for each line — like a school-store price list, so the paper cannot inflate its bill just because the town is required to advertise. If the paper tries to charge by measuring the ad with a special ruler that adds phantom inches, or adds fees for extra words the town never asked to print, that breaks the rules. The town's money is public money — your money — and Title 35 protects it, and your right to know what the government is doing, by keeping legal ads honest, affordable, and out in the open.

Case Example

• Case Name & Citation: Gamrin v. Palisades Newspapers, Inc., 117 N.J. Super. 219 (App. Div. 1971)
• Statute Applied: N.J.S.A. 35:2-1 (rates for official advertising); N.J.S.A. 35:1-1 (definition of official advertising)
• Brief Summary: The City of Englewood published its official advertisements in Palisades Newspapers' Press-Journal, which claimed qualification under N.J.S.A. 35:1-2.2 and charged the statutory rate of 22¢ per insertion per "agate line" for a paper with a net paid circulation between 5,000 and 10,000. Ten citizen-taxpayers sued to recover alleged overpayments. Construing N.J.S.A. 35:2-1 strictly, the Appellate Division held that the statute fixes the price "per agate (or 5 1/2 point) line for each insertion," so a newspaper must charge by counting agate lines rather than by measuring the ad's space with an agate ruler. The court also held Palisades could not bill Englewood for a "Public Notice" heading and the paper's own name that it inserted without the city's request — 88¢ the city should not have paid — and reversed, directing a hearing to compute the overpayments. It declined to forfeit the publisher's charges for failing to file a circulation affidavit because the city suffered no prejudice.
• Source Link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9187144427293577675