You’ve Been Served, In Less Than 140 Characters

Steven M. Richard and Britt Killian, writing on the Nixon Peabody website, discuss the legalities of serving legal process on someone via their social media account. It’s a lot easier than tracing a person’s physical whereabouts, they note, but so far, courts have been mostly unwilling to allow such alternate service. The central issue concerns whether service through social media furthers or compromises a party’s right to be notified in a timely and proper manner under the circumstances of the case. They discuss cases in the Oklahoma state courts and in the Southern District of New York.