service by facebook?

[VeronicaLodge]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? not the US but.... what do you guys think of this?

Service by Facebook

In December of last year, an Australian judge permitted service via acebook as an alternative method of service. Solicitors for the Claimant in this case had obtained a default judgment but had had difficulties serving it on the Defendants.

The Claimant’s solicitors discovered that the Defendants’ Facebook profiles contained their dates of birth, email addresses and friend’s list.

When this information was put before a judge, it was decided that default judgment could be reasonably expected to be brought to the Defendant’s attention if it is was sent to them by a private message on Facebook.

It is believed that this is the first case of its kind and may provide persuasive authority in England.

[Zigner]

Originally Posted by VeronicaLodge

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? not the US but.... what do you guys think of this?

Service by Facebook

In December of last year, an Australian judge permitted service via acebook as an alternative method of service. Solicitors for the Claimant in this case had obtained a default judgment but had had difficulties serving it on the Defendants.

The Claimant’s solicitors discovered that the Defendants’ Facebook profiles contained their dates of birth, email addresses and friend’s list.

When this information was put before a judge, it was decided that default judgment could be reasonably expected to be brought to the Defendant’s attention if it is was sent to them by a private message on Facebook.

It is believed that this is the first case of its kind and may provide persuasive authority in England.

US Law Only

[VeronicaLodge]

i will stab you! haha kidding.

[Zigner]

Frankly, I think it's incredibly stupid. There is NO way to know if the person actually gets the intended service.

[Ronin]

In such a case the person may actually stand a better chance of receiving notice by way of Facebook than service by publication

With either method, the court construes service to be effective whether the defendant actually reads the notice or not.

[Stevef]

There was a US case I was reading about recently where a website operator was permitted to serve an abusive user via the website when that user logged on.

That case is somewhat different because the website operator had knowledge that the user had seen the complaint, whereas I don't know if it is possible for a facebook user to know if another facebook user has seen a message that was sent. It's also possible to delete a facebook message without actually reading it, where the website operator could have inserted a click-through option requiring the user to acknowledge having read the message before continuing, similar to a click-through license agreement.