So Is This Really A “Friend”?

Watch out for what may be the newest use (or maybe misuse) of Facebook – process serving. A court in Great Britain recently allowed a lawyer to serve a legal summons via Facebook. The lawyer, Hilary Thorpe, represented a client who was having trouble serving papers to collect a debt. Thorpe convinced the court that the usual methods of service were unavailing, and that the defendant was a regular Facebook user. I don’t know if this is a coming trend or not, but courts are increasingly using electronic filing and recognizing that parties can serve legal papers via electronic means. Keep that in mind next time you log on. Especially if you owe anyone some money.