‘You’re Sued’: Facebook Now a Platform in UK for Serving Legal Claims
- Posted on February 21, 2012 at 8:00pm by
Liz Klimas
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UK will allow Facebook as a mode of serving people with legal claims.
LONDON (AP) — Status update: You’re sued.
Legal authorities said Tuesday that a High Court judge in England has approved the use of Facebook to serve legal claims.
Lawyers in a commercial dispute were last week granted permission to serve a suit against a defendant via the popular social networking site.
Justice Nigel Teare permitted the unconventional method of service during a pretrial hearing into a case which pits two investment managers against a brokerage firm they accuse of overcharging them.
A former trader and an ex-broker, Fabio De Biase and Anjam Ahmad, are also alleged to have been in on the scam.
Jenni Jenkins, who represents Ahmad, said lawyers in the case had been trying to track De Biase in order to serve him with legal documents. She said that a copy of the suit was left at his last known address, but that it wasn’t clear whether he was still living there.
The lawyers didn’t have his email address, so they applied for permission to send him the claim through Facebook.
Jenkins, an associate with London-based law firm Memery Crystal, said the lawyers were confident that de Biase’s account was still active.
“The counsel told the judge that someone from the firm had been monitoring the account and they‘d seen that he’s recently added two new friends, which made the judge chuckle,” she said.
De Biase was given extra time to respond to the claim “to allow for the possibility that he wasn’t accessing his account regularly,” she added.
Ordinarily, British legal claims are served in hard copy — either in person, by mail, or by fax — although unconventional means are occasionally employed if the people involved are hard to pin down.
In December, a British judge made headlines for filing an injunction against London-based protesters from the Occupy movement via text message.
The Judicial Office for England and Wales confirmed Tuesday that Teare had allowed lawyers to serve their claim through Facebook. A spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to give her name, said it was the first time anyone had been served via the site “as far as we’re aware.”
Facebook declined a request for comment on the issue.
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objectivetruth
Posted on February 22, 2012 at 8:44amI realize that this may be a last ditch effort for service.It isn’t too reliable.Nor it would seem to me legal.Then again its England.If the account isn’t accessed very often, can anyone even be sure its the rightful owner accessing it?Its facebook afterall.If they had of served papers, through a reasonably secure means ,in a regularly accessed lone account, this might not be so dicey.Personally I don’t think it would fly in our courts[usa].
Report Post »SoupSandwich
Posted on February 22, 2012 at 8:53amOne more reason that here we use an affidavit for private process. Ask any of our vulture/lawyers if facebook sounds like service and I am sure they can ramble on for half a day why it isn’t too kosher, here. That is almost as bad as a corpulant deputy “posting” papers on a dwelling in the projects, in 30 knot winds while it is hailing. Sure. uh, huh. Good service.
Report Post »HorseCrazy
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 10:12pmoff topic but is anyone else getting tons of popups from the blaze? It only happens when I am on this site and if it keeps up I won’t be using the site anymore. just me?
Report Post »lovenfl3
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 11:01pmNo, it’s not just you. I get the unwanted background audio as well, that bothers me even more than the pop-ups.
Report Post »joe conservative
Posted on February 22, 2012 at 12:12amI would think that Facebook would be creating a stir over this. I would think that this would have an impact on the number of people using Facebook. And how do they know you received it?
Report Post »http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMbxtBIQX-I
TomFerrari
Posted on February 22, 2012 at 7:17amMy thoughts exactly, Joe…
I hear the clicks of millions of people “deleting” their accounts.
Report Post »(Though I think facebook doesn’t even PERMIT you to delete an account, only to “deactivate” it.)
(which is kind of creepy in and of itself !)
objectivetruth
Posted on February 22, 2012 at 8:30amNo it isn’t just you.I suggest you get a pop up blocker or make use of one,you may already have[windows depending on the version has a limited one.Some antivirus's have it as well].
Report Post »HorseCrazy
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 10:11pmOh I am sure facebook and all of their new investors are going to love it when people start fleeing so they cannot be served for debts or other disputes. oh well
Report Post »objectivetruth
Posted on February 22, 2012 at 8:52amYeah.Unless, they make a rule declaring that it can’t be used except in a last ditch effort,the identity of the individual is definitely ascertainable and connected with the specific account.That the transaction or business conducted can be proved through online records.Anything less will no doubt cause a logistical nightmare.
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