International Law

"You've Got Mail!" Australian Court Approves Service of Court Papers via Facebook

By Doug Jasinski

If you are a regular reader of legal blogs you've probably already been alerted to this story which has been picking up steam in recent days, but I thought it was worth a note for those that might have missed it. Australian law firm Meyer Vandenberg convinced the Australian Capital Territory's Supreme Court to allow service of court documents on An Australian couple who defaulted on their mortgage via the couple's facebook page. It appears the couple had been avoiding service and the judge was satisfied the facebook accounts were the correct ones as they listed the couple's correct birthdates, email addresses and friend lists showing the two were friends with each other. This follows on earlier reports that social networking sites are becoming an increasingly important piece of the evidence puzzle in family law cases (with personal injury and disability also being obvious areas where such digital evidence might be relevant).

For me, the take-away is that more lawyers need to become better informed about the big digital frontier outside their door. As it continues to expand in the general populace, it becomes ever more relevant to modern legal practice in myriad ways for better and for worse.

You can find more details of the Australian case here.

Full post as published by Legal Marketing Canada on December 16, 2008 (boomark / email).