A public notice is a form of

notice Notice is the legal concept describing a requirement that a party be aware of legal process affecting their rights, obligations or duties. There are several types of notice: public notice (or legal notice), actual notice, constructive notice. ...

given to the

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

regarding certain types of legal proceedings. __TOC__

By government

Public notices are issued by a

government agency A government agency or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government (bureaucracy) that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, s ...

legislative A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers ...

body in certain

rulemaking In administrative law, rulemaking is the process that executive and independent agencies use to create, or ''promulgate'', regulations. In general, legislatures first set broad policy mandates by passing statutes, then agencies create more de ...

or lawmaking proceeding. It is a requirement in most

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' and 'speech' or 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, the concept of jurisdiction applies at multiple level ...

s, in order to allow members of the public to make their

opinion An opinion is a judgement, viewpoint, or statement that is not conclusive, as opposed to facts, which are true statements. Definition A given opinion may deal with subjective matters in which there is no conclusive finding, or it may deal ...

s on proposals known ''before'' a rule or law is made. For

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

, public notice is often given by those seeking a

liquor license A liquor license (or liquor licence in most forms of Commonwealth English) is a governmentally issued permit for businesses to sell, manufacture, store, or otherwise use alcoholic beverages. Canada In Canada, liquor licences are issued by the l ...

, a re

zoning In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into land-use "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for ...

variance In probability theory and statistics, variance is the expected value of the squared deviation from the mean of a random variable. The standard deviation (SD) is obtained as the square root of the variance. Variance is a measure of dispersion ...

, or other minor approval which must be granted by a

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

county commission A county commission (or a board of county commissioners) is a group of elected officials (county commissioners) collectively charged with administering the county government in some states of the United States. A county usually has three to fiv ...

, or board of supervisors.

By private individuals or companies

Parties to some legal proceedings, such as

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has Default (finance), stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the Collateral (finance), coll ...

probate In common law jurisdictions, probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased; or whereby, in the absence of a legal will, the e ...

, and estate actions are sometimes required to publish public notices.

In communications

Public notices are sometimes required to seek a new

broadcast license A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which va ...

from a national

broadcasting authority Broadcasting is the distribution of audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began with ...

, or a change to modification to an existing license. U.S. broadcast stations are required to give public notice on the air that they are seeking a license renewal from the U.S.

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC) or to notify viewers of the station's purchase by another party. Records of the public notices must often be kept in a station's

public file A public file (or public inspection file) is a collection of documents required by a broadcasting authority to be maintained by all broadcast stations under its jurisdiction. Such a file is required by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ...

Method of notice

One method of notice is publication of a public notice ad in a local

newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major national newspaper with large newspaper circulation, circulation whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered authoritative and independent; they are thus "newspapers of record by reputation" and i ...

. Public notice can also be given in other ways, including

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

, and on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. Some governments required publication in a local/nationwide newspaper or the

government gazette A government gazette (also known as an official gazette, official journal, official newspaper, official monitor or official bulletin) is a periodical publication that has been authorised to publish public or legal notices. It is usually establish ...

, though there have been attempts among some politicians to eliminate the expense of publication by switching to electronic forms of notification.House Bill 193: Electronic Notice of Public Hearings
from the website of the

North Carolina General Assembly The North Carolina General Assembly is the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Government of North Carolina, state government of North Carolina. The legislature consists of two chambers: the North Carolina Senate, Senate and the North Ca ...

Notes

References