An Australian court has allowed a lawyer to use Facebook to serve legal documents on a couple who defaulted on a housing loan in what is believed to be the first case of its kind.
Mark McCormack, a Canberra solicitor - a keen Facebook user himself - sought permission from the court after more conventional attempts to reach the couple failed.
Users on Facebook who are worried about being approached by lawyers can adjust their optional privacy settings to prevent anyone from outside their personal network contacting them. Which would prevent someone like Mark McCormack getting in contact with them.
What this shows though is how far our lives are moving online and that it is not going to be long before judges etc are all going to join in. While Facebook might see itself as a reliable medium in light of this judgement, the Australian court action is going to raise privacy issues and concerns among social networking site users.
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