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Seamus E. Byrne is an Australian Information Lawyer and Computer Forensics Expert with extensive e-discovery and electronic evidence experience.

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This website is made available by Seamus E. Byrne, an Australian legal practitioner, for educational purposes only. Content is not to be used as legal opinion or as a substitute to qualified matter-specific legal advisory within your jurisdiction. No responsibility is taken, or endorsement made, for the content of any externally hyperlinked webpage. All endeavours have been made to ensure content accuracy as at time of publication.

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« Webpages as Electronic Evidence – Facebook Case Study | Main | The Law Society’s Legal Technology Committee »
Monday
Dec222008

Recent Media - Substituted Service via Facebook

Posted on DateDecember 22, 2008

I was recently contacted for comment in relation to the popular social networking website, Facebook. This followed an announcement from a Canberra-based law firm that had successfully applied to the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory for orders of substituted service via Facebook.

ABC Radio - Extract

ALISON CALDWELL: Courts have allowed legal notices to be delivered by email and by text message but it's a first for Facebook.
Earlier this year, a Queensland court ruled against using Facebook as a legal means of communication.
Seamus Byrne is a lawyer and a computer forensic expert. He says it was just a matter of time before a court would recognise social networking websites, but he doesn't believe it will become common practice.
SEAMUS BYRNE: How do you know that this purported individual by taking it on the basis of their webpage profile has actually received this message? And secondly privacy considerations, looking at Facebook, MySpace and other popular social networking websites, they've all recently taken steps to increase the level of privacy one can set on their respective webpage profiles.
And so that's prior to even adding someone as a friend or a contact to their profile, you might not be able to see their webpage, let alone identify them from search results.
In this case it may have just been that limited window of opportunity
ELEANOR HALL: That's computer analyst Seamus Byrne ending that report from Alison Caldwell.

Associated Press - Extract

Lawyer and computer forensic expert Seamus Byrne said he was aware of only one similar case in Australia. A Queensland state District Court judge ruled in April against documents being served by Facebook because the option of contacting a person via a post office box had not yet been exhausted.

CommentPost a Comment | Reference5 References | Print ArticlePrint Article | |
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References (5)

References allow you to track sources for this article, as well as articles that were written in response to this article.
  • Source
    Source: Australia OKs Facebook for serving lien notice
    by Rod McGuirk at The Associated Press
    CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — You've been "superpoked" — and served. A court in Australia has approved the use of Facebook, a popular social networking Web site, to notify a couple that they lost their home after defaulting on a loan.
  • Source
    Source: Facebook features as long arm of the law
    by ABC Radio, The World Today at ABC Radio, The World Today on December 15, 2008
    ELEANOR HALL: In a sign that Australia's courts are adapting to technological change, the Supreme Court of the ACT has granted lawyers for a mortgage lender permission to serve a legal notice through the social networking site, Facebook. The Supreme Court allowed the unusual method of service because the lawyers convinced the judge that they hadn't been able to serve the documents personally on two people who had defaulted on a six-figure home loan.
  • Related
    Related: Australian Court Notifies Defendant by Facebook
    by Meyer Vandenberg at Meyer Vandenberg on December 14, 2008
    It seems that Facebook has no boundaries. Sharing photos, updating your status and playing poker are things of the past. The latest movement in the fast paced world of social networking is that you can now be served legally binding documents.
  • Related
    Related: Australian judgment served via Facebook
    by Chris Dale at Chris Dale Lawyer Support
    Lawyers in Australia have served a default judgment on borrowers by sending it via Facebook. The Supreme Court of Australian Capital Territory gave leave for service to be effected in this way because the borrowers had left their last-known address. There was enough information on the Facebook accounts to satisfy the court that the addressees were the right people.
  • Related
    Related: Citigroup Pty Ltd v Weerakoon [2008] QDC 174 (16 April 2008)
    at AustLII

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