Can process servers use social media networking sites such as Facebook to serve individuals? The answer is yes, in some countries. The real question for the United States becomes not if, but when, US courts will sanction it.
Using The Facebook Wall In Other Countries
Although this method has not been tested yet in the courts in the United States, it has been effectively employed in other countries such as New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and most recently in Australia. Based on the legal and political relationship the United States has with these countries, it seems a foregone conclusion that serving individuals via their preferred social media venue is in the future for America as well.
In the Australia scenario, a music concert promoter was filing a lawsuit against an act for failing to fulfill his contractual obligation to appear at a festival to perform. Frustrated by his lack of ability to adequately serve the performer, which included multiple personal service attempts that were thwarted by the musician’s cadre of muscled bodyguards, the promoter finally appealed to the Australian courts.
Follow the Link to Your Court Papers
The judge in this case, convinced of the promoter’s earnest attempt to serve the artist in question, and of the increasing difficulty for the promoter to ever locate the performer, allowed the promoter to post a link on the artist’s website fan page which directed the artist to the court papers.
Will this become yet another means by which process servers may execute their duties? The jury, at least in the United States, is still out. But as the rest of the world quickly assumes an online presence, and sometimes no other tangible presence, it only makes sense that process servers will more frequently turn to the social application of the Internet in order to meet their legal requirements to serve documents.
