In a March case out of Brooklyn, New York (Superior Court), a judge allowed a woman to "serve" her elusive husband a divorce summons via Facebook.
So does this mean that the future of giving notice of a lawsuit to the opposing party can be done electronically without consent from the party being served? The answer is "no." Without consent of both parties, the initial papers in a lawsuit are still "required" to be delivered to the opposing party by a form of personal service. Or at least that you attempt personal service, unless that would be futile. Most states then allow alternate service if personal service is not possible.
If you read the actual case out of New York, instead of just the headlines on the news services, this particular approval was given as "alternate" service, not as a "new" primary means of serving notice of the lawsuit.
In this particular case, the Plaintiff did not know where the Defendant was located, so she couldn't give him "personal service" (in person delivery of the court papers) or send him registered mail. So the court allowed her to give "substitute service", which in this case, was via Facebook.
As long as the substitute or alternate service is reasonably calculated, under all the
circumstances, to apprise a defendant of the lawsuit, it fulfills the requirements provided to us under established case law. In this particular case, the Judge stated that a Facebook message met this requirement, as an alternate form of service.
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