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NY Magistrate: Legal Papers Can Be Served Via Facebook
New submitter Wylde Stile writes with an interesting case that shows just how pervasive social networking connections have become, including in the eyes of the law. A Staten Island, NY family court support magistrate allowed a Noel Biscoch to serve his ex-wife legal papers via Facebook. Biscoch tried to serve his ex-wife Anna Maria Antigua the old-fashioned way — in person and via postal mail — but his ex-wife had moved with no forwarding address. Antigua maintains an active Facebook account, though, and had even liked some photos on the Biscoch's present wife's Facebook page days before the ruling. The magistrate concluded that the ex-wife could be served through Facebook. If this catches on, I bet a lot of people will end up with legally binding notices caught by spam filters or in their Facebook accounts' "Other" folders.
If legal documents can be sent over Facebook, then shouldn't communications on Facebook be regulated under the FCC telecommunications act?
This would include that private messages sent over Facebook may not be inspected by Facebook, and may not be used for targeted ads.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
I never even knew Facebook had mail let alone folders.
Facebook stopped being something you wanted to be on when your aunts and uncles started making accounts.
Facebook stopped being something you wanted to be on when your boss/employer started checking it.
Facebook stopped being something you wanted to be on when the government started sniffing around it for information about you.
Facebook stopped being something you wanted to be on when judges decided it was a reasonable means to serve legal documents.
Get off facebook... it is only down hill from here.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
This is, I think, the key line in TFA:
> A Family Court official ruled that Noel Biscocho could use Facebook to serve Anna Maria Antigua because other, more traditional methods to slap her with papers have not worked.
Historically, when the defendant absolutely cannot be reached any other way, the service of last resort was to put a classified ad in the "legal notices" section of the newspaper. In order for a judge to accept that, you had to show that you didn't know where the person lived or worked, and had no reasonable means of finding out. It seems to me that in case like this, delivery via the person's _active_ Facebook account is much better than a classified ad,and may well be the best available method of reaching the person.
Papers are often served via the US Mail. FCC has no jurisdiction. Papers are often served at "last and usual," jargon for the place where the person is believed to have resided most recently. FCC has no jurisdiction over the front door. Contrary to film noir movies, papers are only occasionally served "in hand" where the process server physically hands the documents to the person of interest. Of course, the FCC has no jurisdiction there either.
In short, the FCC has absolutely nothing to do with this.
Source: I am a process server.
Support a few technologists in Washington.
1) Find wife's FB password.
2) Keep account active by visiting pages and liking stuff.
3) Get judge to agree to serve legal papers via FB.
4) Profit!
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Anything done on a computer is a crime under CFAA, if the prosecutor wants it to be. And if you make a fake FB account to deceive a judge and lie in court about it, you'll get the Aaron Swartz "hacker" treatment.