Daily Archives: September 24, 2009

Alberta Judge Allows Substituted Service via Facebook

What could possibly top “Getting Fired via Facebook” (posted August 14, 2009)?

Here’s the latest: an Alberta judge has allowed a defendant to be served via Facebook. Shaunna Mireau of slaw.ca reported as follows:

The February 5, 2009 Order of Master Breitkreuz from Knott v. Sutherland says that the plaintiffs could substitutionally serve one of the multiple defendants by publication of a notice in the newspaper, by forwarding a copy of the statement of claim to the human resources department where the defendant (formerly) worked, and also by sending notice of the action to the Facebook profile of the defendant.

Although servicing a defendant via Facebook sounds outlandish, rest assured, it’s not. The purpose of substituted service (as it’s called in Ontario) is to give the defendant sufficient notice so that he or she becomes aware of the legal action in a timely fashion. If the court has been convinced that the defendant is a frequent Facebook user, the seemingly odd outcome actually becomes quite logical.

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