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Ontario Judge Endorses Substituted Service Through Facebook
As detailed in a paper recently presented by Ontario Superior Court Justice Cheryl Robertson, she recently granted an order allowing service to be effected through Facebook. The case involved a paternity action in which the mother was unable to track down an address for the father, but was able to find him on Facebook and send him a message with the documents attached. The reply, also on Facebook, attached to an affidavit was sufficient to satisfy the Justice that the father had been served.
There are other anecdotal examples of courts permitting creative service via Facebook. In Alberta, Master Breitkreuz had previously allowed service by posting a notice of action to a defendant’s Facebook profile. Justice Robertson and her co-author, Alison McEwen, suggest that the dearth of substantial written reasons on service by electronic media is due to the fact that “ex parte, unopposed decisions rarely get written yet alone reported.”
In most reported cases, service by electronic media such as e-mail is a secondary or backup form of service to more traditional methods such as personal delivery or mailing to a physical address. Nevertheless, Justice Robertson is joined by a number of practitioners in anticipating that electronic service will soon become a normal and accepted method of service. While service on Facebook is unlikely to displace more traditional methods, it is likely to prove an effective tool in the “substituted service toolbox.”
For additional information, visit:
http://shorl.com/letenuruvufu
http://www.slaw.ca/2009/09/24/substitutional-service-via-facebook-in-alberta/