From the Legal Hotline (1-877-NEWS-LAW)
Q. Have you had any experience with agencies requiring newspapers to complete signed and notarized affidavits to request a wreck report? Also, what language can be redacted from the reports? I spent the afternoon with the local sheriff’s office negotiating what constitutes identifying information and what didn’t under the law’s language. I eventually got them to leave city names unredacted as they relate to the persons involved.
A. Section 316.066, F.S., deals with written crash reports. Here are the rules for who can access the reports and when and what can be accessed.
Generally, crash reports that contain personal information concerning the parties involved in the crash are confidential and exempt from disclosure for 60 days after the report is filed.
However, newspapers (and other listed entities) can obtain such crash reports immediately so long as they do not contain the home or employment street addresses, driver license or identification card numbers, dates of birth, and home and employment telephone numbers of the parties involved. City names should be left unredacted.
In order to access the crash report, the person must present a valid driver license or other photographic identification, proof of status, or identification that demonstrates his or her qualifications to access that information and file a written sworn statement with the state or local agency in possession of the information stating that information from a crash report made confidential and exempt by this section will not be used for any commercial solicitation of accident victims or knowingly disclosed to any third party for the purpose of such solicitation. The sworn statement must be completed and sworn to by the requesting party for each individual crash report that is being requested.
Q. What are the requirements for tax rolls published in newspapers–for example, circulation, paid subscribers, etc.? To make a long story short, there was a legal ad published in a small newspaper within the county, however, the notice had to be rerun in a larger/more circulated publication because the original publication didn’t have enough circulation. Our clerk is stating that they can use the smaller paper, but I have doubts, so I thought I would get a head start on it for next year.
A. When you refer to “tax rolls to be published in a newspaper,” I’m assuming you mean the list of properties having delinquent taxes that must be advertised (for three consecutive weeks) by the tax collector.
The general requirements newspapers must meet to publish delinquent tax notices are the same as for other legal notices and are contained in Chapter 50. Namely, the paper must be distributed at least weekly (unless in some cases the only newspaper in the county is published less than weekly), must have a periodicals permit (unless the paper relies on the audience threshold criteria which I do not believe applies to your paper), publishes on its website, uploads the notices to floridapublicnotices.com, etc.
If a paper has a periodicals permit, there is no circulation or paid subscriber threshold or requirement. However, sometimes the county uses a competitive bid process for delinquent tax notices, and if so, may impose addition circulation criteria and those must be met. [Maybe that is why they thought the publication of the legal ad in the “small newspaper” didn’t have enough circulation?]
In general, I think the clerk is correct when she says she can use the smaller paper, assuming it meets the general Chapter 50 requirements, including possessing a periodicals permit or meeting the audience threshold. By the way, the tax collector may publish this notice in more than one newspaper if he/she so chooses.
Regarding charges, the typical rate is the lowest commercial rate on your rate card, however, again, if there is a competitive procurement, the bid rate will prevail.
Q. We had a call from a towing client today and they were asking if we had a rate for online towing ads only. I am not sure if the business understands the new law, and I know we don’t have a clear handle on it either. Can these towing businesses continue running their notices in print if they want and not use the approved websites?
A. Unfortunately, the answer is no. As of July 1, under the recent law, the towing business “must” publish “the time and place of sale” on “the publicly available website maintained by an approved third-party service.” The third-party service must be approved by DHSMV. Apparently, there are currently two DHSMV-approved third-party providers: Auto Data Direct and Beacon Software. The third-party service must electronically report to DHSMV via “an electronic data exchange process using a web interface” certain listed info. about the vehicle or vessel. Publishing only in the newspaper would not be sufficient.
We think that new law is based on poor public policy. Notices should also be in newspapers since this is where the public in general gets this information and can oversee the process affecting people’s valuable private property. Alas, these arguments proved to be of no avail during session.