Social Networking website used to serve a court summons

A lawyer based in Britain has used a Social Networking website to serve a court summons, in what is believed to be the first such case in Britain.

Hilary Thorpe a solicitor based in Eastbourne was finding it difficult to reach a debtor in order to issue him a court summons regarding his finances. She had exhausted all avenues in trying to reach the debtor and recalled a rare case in Australia whereby the Supreme Court had given the solicitor permission to utilise a social networking website to serve a summons.

She wondered if a British court would accept the same principle.

Hastings Count Court in East Sussex accepted her request, and Ms Thorpe had logged onto Facebook and served the court order.

“It is great to see that the courts are willing to embrace new technology”.

This case has proven to be an effective way of resolving an age old problem in the legal system! From a private detectives point of view this case should be the bench mark for serving a wide range of legal documents and summons to those hard to reach individuals, speaking from experience this type of service would have made my job and life a million times easier.

Frank