In a first for Social Media Law, the United Kingdom's High Court has permitted an injunction to be served via Twitter. Under UK law, there is no requirement that an injunction be served in person. In the UK, injunctions may be served via fax and e-mail, and now via social media.
I do not believe that service by social media will ever be allowed in the U.S. One of the main public policy reasons for requiring personal service in the U.S. is to ensure some type of minimum barrier that every litigant needs to follow to file a lawsuit. It is already very easy for anyone to file a lawsuit in the U.S. Since the U.S. is already the most litigious country, I do not foresee a day when it will be made any easier to file a lawsuit. In my opinion, I think you can forget ever being able to utilize social media to serve another party in our legal system.
Copyright 2009 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
