If you missed this in the Morning Spice today, there was a little piece about how you can serve divorce papers via Facebook now. In a nutshell, “a Manhattan Supreme Court judge has ruled that a New York woman can serve her divorce summons by messaging her soon to be ex-husband on Facebook”.

Well that’s cute, NYC. But according to Abrahams & Gross Attorneys, we’ve been serving legal documents via Facebook for years already in South Africa.

Back in August 2012 after the Durban High Court judgement in CMC Woodworking Machinery (Pty) Ltd v Peter Odendaal Kitchens, in which Judge Steyn allowed the Plaintiff to serve certain legal documents on the Defendant via the Defendant’s Facebook account.

It was also said that “a private message via a social media network falls in the scope of Rule 4(2) of the Uniform Rules of Court and should therefore be allowed as a valid form of substituted service”.

And now for the news you’ve been waiting for: Abrahams & Gross Inc was recently successful in applying for an order allowing substituted service of a Divorce Summons via the Defendant’s Facebook account at the Cape Town High Court.

Facebook, and other social media networks, are an effective communication tool and can now be used as an accepted alternative to personal service of legal documents.

Well, here’s hoping people use this responsibly.

[Source: Engadget and Abrahams & Gross Inc]