Publishers' fees; revise those charged for publication of legal documents.
Summary
HB 598 revises Mississippi’s statutory fee schedule for newspaper publication of legal notices and other documents published on behalf of a public body. The bill increases the per-word charge for public-body publications from 12 cents for the first insertion and 10 cents for subsequent insertions to 25 cents and 23 cents, respectively, for publications on behalf of other parties, and it adds an annual CPI-based increase beginning July 1, 2026. It also raises the fee for making proof of publication, making a copy, and deposing to the same from $3 to $5.
The bill preserves existing rules for counting words and numerals in legal notices, keeps the exception for erroneous publications not caused by the requester, and continues to exclude certain municipal, county, school board, and audit-report publications from the section’s application. The act takes effect July 1, 2025, and amends Section 25-7-65 of the Mississippi Code.
Impact
HB 598 directly amends Mississippi’s laws governing compensation for printers and publishers who run legally required notices in newspapers, affecting public bodies, private parties using legal notices, and newspapers that publish them. It increases statutory fees and creates an automatic inflation adjustment for certain publication charges starting in 2026, which will likely raise costs for entities required to publish summonses, citations, advertisements, and notices in print newspapers.
Sentiment
The bill appears to have been broadly supported and noncontroversial in the Legislature. It passed the House 114-1, the Senate twice with unanimous or near-unanimous support, and the House concurred in the Senate amendment 119-0. The voting pattern suggests general agreement that the fee schedule needed updating, with little visible opposition in floor action.
Contention
No committee transcript was provided, and the recorded votes show minimal disagreement, so there is little evidence of major contention. The main policy issue is the higher cost of mandatory newspaper legal notices, which benefits publishers but increases expenses for public bodies and other parties required to publish notices. The CPI escalator may also be a point of concern for cost predictability over time, though that concern did not appear to generate significant opposition in the votes.