'via Blog this'
Mr Justice Teare gave the go-ahead for the social networking site to be used in a commercial case where there were difficulties locating one of the parties.
Facebook is routinely used to serve claims in Australia and New Zealand, and has been used a handful of times in Britain. However, this is the first time it has been approved at such a high level.
Jenni Jenkins, a lawyer at Memery Crystal, which is representing one of the parties in the case said the ruling set a precedent and made it likely that service-via-Facebook would become routine.
“It’s a fairly natural progression. A High Court judges has already ruled that an injunction can be served via Twitter, so it’s a hop, skip and a jump away from that to allow claims to be served via Facebook,” she said.
In 2009, Mr Justice Lewison allowed an injunction to be served via Twitter in a case where the defendant was only known by his Twitter-handle and could not easily be identified another way.
Last March, another judge gave the go-ahead for a court order to be served via Facebook, but this was in a county court.
The $2.1m (£1.3m) High Court claim was brought by AKO Capital LLP and AKO Master Fund, two investment managers, against their broker TFS Derivatives, as well as one of its employees, Fabio de Biase, and Anjam Ahmad, who used to work for AKO Capital.
The investment managers claim that TFS significantly overcharged commission and are seeking to recover the funds from the broker. However, TFS denies the allegation and claims that if held liable, it should be able to recover some of the funds from Mr Ahmad and Mr De Biase.
TFA served the claim on Mr De Biase at his last known address, but petitioned the court to be allowed to do so via Facebook as well because there was doubt over whether he still lived there.
Mr Justice Teare questioned whether TFS could verify that the Facebook account belonged to the right Mr De Biase, and whether he was in the habit of checking it.
The court heard that Mr De Biase was friends with other TFS colleagues, and that the account was known to be in use because he had accepted a few recent friend requests.
Court order served over Twitter - 2009- From the BBC
The High Court has given permission for an injunction to be served via social-networking site Twitter.
The order is to be served against an unknown Twitter user who anonymously posts to the site using the same name as a right-wing political blogger.
The order demands the anonymous Twitter user reveal their identity and stop posing as Donal Blaney, who blogs at a site called Blaney's Blarney.
The order says the Twitter user is breaching the copyright of Mr Blaney.
He told BBC News that the content being posted to Twitter in his name was "mildly objectionable".
Mr Blaney turned to Twitter to serve the injunction rather than go through the potentially lengthy process of contacting Twitter headquarters in California and asking it to deal with the matter.
UK law states that an injunction does not have to be served in person and can be delivered by several different means including fax or e-mail.
Danvers Baillieu, a solicitor specialising in technology, said it was possible for anyone to approach the court about any method of serving an injunction if the traditional methods are unavailable.
"The rules already allow for electronic service of some documents, so that they can be sent by e-mail, and it should also be possible to use social networks," he said.
Mr Blaney decided to use Twitter after a recent case in Australia where Facebook was used to serve a court order.
The blogger, who is also a lawyer and owns the firm serving the order, said that he thought that it was the first time Twitter had been used to deliver a court order.
The injunction - known as the Blaney's Blarney Order - is due to be served at 1930 BST and will include a link to the text of the full court order.
The UK’s highest court launches a Twitter account to broadcast its latest rulings - 6-Feb 2012
The @UKSupremeCourt account has yet to tweet, but the court’s Twitter ‘broadcast service’ will kick-off by tweeting live coverage of the new justice Lord Reed being sworn in at the Supreme Court later today.
It will tweet updates during the brief ceremony at the building in Parliament Square, London, to explain proceedings to those watching via a live Web stream. The ceremony start at 11.30am.
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