Thanks to Nick who just sent me Aussie couple lose home via Facebook, where it seems an Australian lawyer used Facebook — that’s right, an online social network service — to serve legal papers, citing it as their “last known address.” It’s a precedent,and I think it’s seriously problematic. Like, I have *all* my Facebook notifications turned off, if only for shame of having a Facebook page at all. Snip:
A legal move believed to be a world first has opened the way for New Zealanders to be served legal documents through their Facebook sites.
Canberra lawyer Mark McCormack expects other courts will follow his lead after he used the internet to find a couple who had defaulted on a six-figure loan and serve them with a default judgment.
His action could easily be repeated on this side of the Tasman.
Crown Solicitor Simon Moore, SC, said using internet sites such as Facebook made perfect sense.
“In civil courts, there has always been the facility to apply for substituted service in cases where a defendant may be difficult to find or evidence suggests they are deliberately evading documents being served on them.”
Courts usually leave legal documents at a defendant’s last known address or somewhere they know family members are.
Mr Moore said the Facebook option was a novel way of serving documents and probably an effective option of bringing court action to someone’s attention. (…read more, nzherald.co.nz)