Legal Notice Publication in NY: Which One Do You Need?

Somewhere upstream of this page, you searched for "affidavit of publication" or "notice by publication" — and landed in a thicket. Those phrases cover at least five different legal procedures, run by different authorities, proved by different documents, filed in different places. Instructions for one are useless for the others. Two minutes here will tell you which one is yours, and save you an afternoon of reading the wrong instructions.

The confusion is understandable. An "affidavit of publication" is just a newspaper's sworn statement that it printed something. Every procedure that uses newspapers produces one — which is why the search results for all of them blur into a single pile. What separates them is who demands the notice, and where the proof has to go.

1. LLC formation publication — the §206 requirement

This is the one that arrives with a new business, not a court case. Every LLC formed in New York (PLLCs too) must publish a notice of its formation in two newspapers — one daily, one weekly — designated by the county clerk of the county named in its Articles of Organization. The notice runs once a week for six consecutive weeks in each paper: twelve insertions in all. Publishing in papers the clerk didn't designate — or in the wrong county's papers — voids the run.

An out-of-state LLC that registers to do business in New York publishes too, but under §802 — a notice of qualification, which must state facts a formation notice omits. That is a different notice, and we file it too, in every county; the guide for out-of-state LLCs sets out what it involves.

Nobody orders this in your case, because there is no case. It's a statute — Section 206 of the LLC Law — and it triggers automatically at formation, with a deadline of 120 days.

The proof: each newspaper issues a notarized Affidavit of Publication. Both affidavits are filed with the New York Department of State, along with Form DOS-1708 and a $50 fee, and the state issues a Certificate of Publication — the document that ends the requirement. The cost is the two papers' listed rates — which swing sharply by county — plus the $50 state fee. Miss the deadline and the state suspends the LLC's authority to carry on business in New York; no fine, no dissolution, curable at any time, but a genuine problem at banks, closings, and contract signings.

If this is your procedure — and your LLC was formed in New York — you're in the right place. Start with What is LLC publication? for the whole rule, and the affidavit of publication, explained for what that document actually is and where it goes.

2. Service (or notice) by publication

This one comes from a courtroom. When a party to a lawsuit — a spouse in a divorce, a missing heir in a probate matter — cannot be located, a court can approve notifying that person through a newspaper instead. It is a last resort, and courts treat it that way: you need the court's permission before you publish, not after.

The court's order controls everything — which paper, how many insertions, on what schedule. The runs are typically far shorter than the LLC version. The newspaper's affidavit is then filed with the court, in your case. If this is yours, the order and your court clerk's instructions are the authority; nothing about county-clerk designations or the Department of State applies to you.

3. Estate and probate notices

Administering an estate can involve its own published notices — a notice to creditors is the common example. These are steps inside the estate proceeding, directed by the court or its clerk, and the newspaper's affidavit is filed in that proceeding, not with any state agency. (Note the difference from the previous category: that one is about reaching a specific person who can't be found; this one is a notice step the proceeding itself requires.) The specifics vary with the estate and the court; your court's instructions control, and the clerk's office or the estate's attorney can tell you exactly what your proceeding requires.

4. Name-change publication

Some name changes come with a court-ordered newspaper notice of the name-change petition. The court's order names the paper and the schedule, and the affidavit goes back to the court that issued the order. As with the other court-ordered varieties: the order controls, and the clerk has the instructions.

5. Trademark "published for opposition"

This one involves no newspaper at all. When the USPTO approves a trademark application for publication, the mark is published for opposition in the USPTO's electronic Official Gazette — an examination milestone that opens a window for others to object to the registration. There is no newspaper, no affidavit, nothing to buy, and nothing to file. It happens automatically inside the examination process. If your search started from a USPTO status update, you can close every tab about newspapers; none of it applies to you.

Side by side

Procedure	Triggered by	Who oversees it	Newspapers	Duration	Proof goes to
LLC formation (§206)	Forming an LLC or PLLC in NY	A statute — no court	Two, designated by the county clerk	Six consecutive weeks	NY Department of State, with DOS-1708 + $50
Service by publication	A party who can't be located	The court	Named in the court's order	Set by the order — typically brief	The court, in your case
Estate / probate notices	Estate administration	The court in the proceeding	Per the court's instructions	Per the court's instructions	The estate proceeding
Name change	A name-change petition	The court	Named in the order	Set by the order	The court
Trademark publication	A USPTO examination milestone	The USPTO	None — electronic Official Gazette	Not a newspaper run	Nothing to file

The one-line test

Ask who is demanding the publication.

A statute, at the moment you formed a company → §206 LLC publication. That's this site.
A judge or a court clerk, inside a case → court-ordered notice. The order and the clerk's instructions control.
The USPTO → an examination milestone. There is nothing for you to do, and nothing to buy.

For the court-ordered varieties, your court clerk or your attorney already has the exact instructions — follow those, not anything written for LLCs. If yours is the §206 kind — a domestic New York LLC or PLLC — that's the one we automate end to end: your county's designated papers at their listed rates (in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, the papers the County Clerk assigns after your DOS receipt, quoted once the designation letter names them), both affidavits collected, the DOS-1708 filed, the certificate delivered to your dashboard. An out-of-state LLC publishes under §802 instead, which we file as well.

Formed a New York LLC? Find it by name and see your exact publication deadline.