In a world where it seems as though everyone and their dog has a Facebook profile, it seems the social networking site has now become an appropriate channel for serving legal documents if the party in question is otherwise unreachable. One British High Court judge has ruled that legal papers can be served via social networking site Facebook.
The Telegraph reports that the ruling was handing down in a £1.3 million ($2.1 million) case brought by two investment managers (AKO Capital LLP and AKO Master Fund) against their broker, TFS Derivatives, one of its employees (Fabio de Biase), and a man that used to work for AKO Capital named Anjam Ahmad. However, because they are unsure as to whether or not de Biase is living at his last known address, the claim was served via Facebook.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Jenni Jenkins, a lawyer representing one of the parties involved, said the decision to all the claim to be served via Facebook isn't really all that surprising.
"It's a fairly natural progression. A High Court judge has already ruled that an injunction can be served via Twitter, so it's a hop, skip and a jump away from that to allow claims to be served via Facebook," she told the newspaper.
Indeed, this is not the firs time in the UK that a court has given the green light for a legal document to be served via Facebook. Just last year, solicitor Hilary Thorpe was granted permission to serve court summons to a debtor after several failed attempts to contact the person in question through more traditional channels. However, the Telegraph reports that this is the first approval has been awarded at such a high level.
