Serving Papers on Facebook

[Jen]

In New Zealand, it is now legal to serve someone official papers on facebook (http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/2266647/You-ve-been-served-on-Facebook). A judge ruled today that a man who is accused of stealing $241,000 from a firm account can be served his papers on Facebook, as his location is unknown.

Apparently, this has already been done in Australia with papers regarding mortgage default and has Facebook's support.

I don't know what everyone else thinks, but I have a big problem with this. There's a few reasons for it.

First and foremost, finding a profile online that has my name on it isn't difficult. But just because you find a profile for Jennifer ____ doesn't mean it's necessarily me. While I was teaching, in fact, some of my students made a fake profile for me, complete with cell phone pictures taken in class. Finding an account with a person's name and picture online hardly means it's them.

Secondly, I understand that it's my responsibility to check my mail and my phone messages in case I'm getting served with papers. I also have registered the one email account I actually use with a few places, such as immigration, the power company, and the phone company. I don't like email correspondence for official notices because email addresses tend to be transient, but I deal with it because it seems to be the way NZ has gone.

But to say I have to check every damn account I've ever registered online, just in case someone's trying to contact me with official papers? Fuck that. I have a Facebook account. It's sitting there even though I strongly disliked Facebook when I used it and have no interest. I check it maybe once every 6 months. I'm sure there are others like me.

And lastly, say I did get served papers through Facebook. I'd think there was a 99.9999999999% chance it was a phishing scam and delete the email.

Thoughts?

[jimmy]

You are not the sort of person that would be served this way. They are doing this because some people think they can get away with never opening their mail or answering the door, thus preventing the legal process from proceeding. Like the guy who got busted for calling in sick because he put on his Facebook details of his drunken adventures, if the people seeking to serve you see that you have an active Facebook and are simply avoiding them, they can send the papers that way.

I don't have a damn problem with it, considering it's only happening because people think they can get away with shit and not be called to account for it.

[Jen]

Can you tell if an account is active, though?

I would be all for using Facebook to find a person through his friends or whatever, I just don't think it should be used to send the actual court documents.

Not to mention because I've been forced to move frequently and have changed my name, I AM the type of person who would get served this way. True story: Brad and I had to go to the hospital. We left our old house before paying the ambulance bill. Not on purpose, but it happened, and it didn't occur to me again until the debt collection company found Brad, but couldn't find me. I rung to pay Brad's bill and told them to look me up and sure enough, they couldn't find me.

Good luck finding me on Facebook, though. I deliberately spelled my name wrong. Why the fuck would I want to talk to people from high school unless I could bring a weapon?

[jimmy]

They can tell if you are posting comments on people's pages, I think. Plus, those status updates will say when you've changed them. So yeah, it's not hard, especially if your profile is public.

[Jen]

How can I tell if someone is posting comments on other people's pages? There's a few people I'd like to do evil things to on there, but I have never been able to figure it out.

[jimmy]

I don't know, I don't actually use Facebook.

[Jen]

I'm actually not sure there's a way to find their recent activity. I was unable to view comments or profiles of ANYONE unless they friended me. And I dno't think most people are keen to friend their debtors.

[Jen]

Well, I've just had a bill collector find me on Facebook. He said, "How you doing, sexy?"

:rolleyes::rolleyes: