An Australian court has allowed someone to be served with notice of a lawsuit – by message on Facebook!
Using Facebook in order to serve notice of a lawsuit became the method of last resort after a mortgage company unsuccessfully tried to serve notice of a repossession in more traditional ways. The couple who owned the house that was being repossessed were evading service.
The unusual method of service was permitted after the attorney for the mortgage company demonstrated to the judge that they had exhausted all other methods of serving the documents on the couple who owned the home.
The attorney, Mark McCormack, explained that “It’s somewhat novel, however we do see it as a valid method of bringing the matter to the attention of a defendant.”
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This bothers me because you can’t cancel Facebook. I cannot erase or delete my profile on Facebook, and I wonder what the legal ramifications would be if I were served via it. Trish asks a good question about receipt. I guess my only proof of not seeing the notice would be to have Facebook show when I was last logged in.
Wow! Talk about going public. So, the lesson is … if you’re aware of any lawsuits against you, cancel facebook, twitter, myspace etc because they’ll find you via one of these sources.
I can’t remember though Anne, is it serving or “receipt” of the notice that’s important? Just wondered since some people don’t open their facebook accounts for ages.
Trish