NZ High Court Legalized Facebook for Serving of Court Papers
New Zealand High Court approved the serving of court papers via Facebook today (16 March). The Court in Wellington was sentenced that Axe Market Garden is trying to sue Craig Axe who is alleged to have taken $241,000 from the firm account. According to Daniel Vincent (who counsel for the company), the plaintiff was effectively Axe’s father John and there were difficulties in serving papers on his son.
Craig Axe was known to be living in the UK though his actual whereabouts were not known. The court was told, a family dispute that predated the alleged taking of money from that account. The amount had been accessed via the web while Axe was in the UK. It was alleged, he was assisted in taking the amount by a second defendant Nicholas Scown in four individuals transactions. The court was told Mr Scown was currently living in Auckland. He would be served papers as normal. The case was adjourned until 27 April.
Vincent said Axe had corresponded via email and was known to have a Facebook site, too. He asked the Justice if he would take the atypical step of approving a secondary service order on Axe via Facebook and email to avoid him frustrating his client’s court action. Justice David Gendall did not bat an eyelid in the court room as soon as approving the order after being assured that newspaper adverts could not be effectively targeted. Vincent said after the hearing that he believed it was first time in New Zealand the court had allowed the serving of papers via Facebook. He added he had been inspired by a current court case in Australia. There the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court approved an application to use Facebook to legally notify a couple who lost their home after defaulting on a loan.
After the Australian case, the site authority praised the ruling. They said “We’re pleased to see the Australian court validate Facebook as a reliable, secure and private medium for communication. The ruling is also an interesting indication of the increasing role that Facebook is playing in people’s lives.” The popular social network website, Facebook has got violent popularity in online hangout. It attacked already over 140 million users globally since it launched in 2004.
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