Canadian Judge Allows Service of Process Via Facebook

Cyber-service ‘a new frontier’

Story Source - By Michael McKiernan | Publication Date: Monday, 25 October 2010

An Ontario judge has urged lawyers to be creative with electronic methods of service after allowing a litigant to do it using Facebook in a family law case. 

This makes five or six cases worldwide that this blog has chronicled in the last year.  Admittedly this form of alternative service continues to be authorized when other forms of service have failed. 

That said, check out one Canadian lawyer said about service of process in the digital age.

For him, Facebook is a much better option than traditional methods of substituted service, such as placing an ad in a newspaper. He has also considered creating a web site using the name of a defendant with originating documents available for download.

“The chances of someone Googling themselves is probably higher than somebody catching a legal notice in the Toronto Star directed to them,” he says. “It’s not a great way of serving someone but compared to putting an ad in the newspaper, it’s much better.”

“We need some reform in the Rules to allow for more efficient service. There are many ways the lawsuit could come to that person’s attention without having to have a third party go and knock on that person’s door at the dinner hour.”