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EARTHDATE: December 21, 2008

Official News page 8


REAL LIFE NEWS: LEGAL PAPERS SERVED VIA FACEBOOK

by Hazed

Facebook has been used to serve legal papers to an Australian couple. Mark McCormack, a lawyer in Canberra, persuaded a court to use the social networking site after all other attempts to reach the couple failed. They have reportedly missed payments on their A$100,000 home loan (that's $67,000) and the house is being repossessed.

Mr McCormack says he made several unsuccessful attempts to contact the couple at their home address and via email, but they failed to attend a court appearance in October. So he looked them up on Facebook and found the woman's page. He used details listed there such as her date of birth to argue in the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court that she was the woman in question. Her partner was listed as one of her "friends".

The judge gave permission to use Facebook to serve the legal documents, but stipulated that they should be sent via a private email so that other people visiting the page could not read their contents.

McCormack said, "It's rather novel, however we do see it as a valid method of bringing the matter to the attention of a defendant."

In the past, the Australian courts have granted permission for people to be served with legally binding papers using email or even text messages, but this is the first time they have allowed Facebook. It probably won't be the last!


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