We'd like to make brief note of another excellent editorial in this morning's Standard-Examiner, wherein the Std-Ex editorial board take strong exception to a bill now pending in legislature (SB 208), which would take paid legal notices out of newspapers of general circulation, and require their publication on a centralized Utah Government website:
• Our View: Keep legal notices circulatingThe Std-Ex presents several well reasoned arguments for keeping the current requirement that paid legal notices be published in newspapers; and we'll throw in a couple more of our own:
1) If you want a job done competently and efficiently, government seldom compares favorably with the private sector. If you want a project completely screwed up, enlist the help of government. The foregoing falls into the category that we'd label "common knowldge." Steve Urquhart is a Utah Republican; and we believe he should already understand these bedrock principles. Yet here we have a member of the party that's supposed to champion private solutions; and in this instance he pushes for big government intervention in a traditionally private matter, in a circumstance where the private sector is already doing a pretty danged good job. Sorry, but we're experiencing a bit of cognitive dissonance here. Sadly, we experience that a lot in our frequent dealings with elected Utah Republicans. Lately, central government databases seem to have become a big hit with state legislators of the Utah GOP persuasion.
2) Many legal notices are spotted by readers randomly as they peruse newspapers. Ask yourself how many times you have stumbled upon your name, or the name of someone you know while browsing a legal notice in your newspaper? Then ask yourself these questions: When was the last time this happened as you randomly browsed a government website? When was the last time you randomly browsed (or even visited) a government website?
Uh-huh. See what we mean? Rejection of this knuckle-headed bill is ought to be a "no-brainer," as the Standard-Examiner cogently suggests. Assuming that the purpose of laws requiring publication of legal notices is to provide actual notice of pending actions which would affect lumpencitizens' legal interests (rather than to serve as a mere perfunctory legal charade,) newspapers remain the best way to go.
For the convenience of those readers who'd like to register their opinions to their own legislators, we once again provide these handy Utah legislative contact Links:
• House contact informationHave at it, O gentle Ones.
• Senate contact information
