Are You Being Served the Increasing Role of Social Media in Service of Proceedings September 2012...

7/31/2019 Are You Being Served the Increasing Role of Social Media in Service of Proceedings September 2012 (2)

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Man service is traditionally affected by the Coroner,

a civil servant whose role is to affect service of

proceedings upon Defendants and enforce judgments

or orders against unsuccessful parties to legal

proceedings. Alternatively a party may be served viatheir advocate if that advocate is authorised to accept

service on their behalf.

Permitted methods of service include: handing the

Claim form to the Defendant, leaving the Claim

Form with an adult at the Defendants address,

putting the Claim Form through the post box at the

Defendants address or last known address. But, if the

purpose of service is to put the Defendant on notice

of a Claim being brought against him, what will

happen when the Claimant knows that the

Defendant is no longer present at the last known

address, or if, worse still, the Claimant does not

know the Defendants last known address?

Alternative Methods of Service

Where it is known that the Defendant is not (or may

not be) present at an address or the traditional

methods of service are not open to the Claimant, the

Claimant may apply to the Court for permission to

serve proceedings by an alternative method, the mostcommon being service by email.

More recently, however, Claimants around the globe

have been turning to social media sites as a means to

effectively and cost efficiently serve proceedings

upon Defendants who might otherwise evade service

(sometimes deliberately) purely because their current

residential or business address is unknown.

Earlier this year in the case of AKO Capital LLP &

Another v TFS Derivatives & Others the Mr Justice

Teare in the High Court of England and Walesallowed the Claimants in the action to serve one of

the Defendants via his Facebook Account under

circumstances where the Claimants had found it

difficult to locate the Defendant, who was a former

employee of TFS in an action seeking recovery of

1.3 million of overpaid commissions. Previous

County Court proceedings have also been served via

Twitter.

Before Claimants are able to serve by alternative

methods, such as social media they will need to show

that they have attempted service via a traditional

method without success. It is also likely that the

Court will want to be sufficiently satisfied that the

social media account is in use. In the AKO case, the

Claimant showed that the Defendants Facebook

account was active by pointing out that the

Defendant had recently added two friends.

The decision followed decisions of the Courts in

Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA who

have readily accepted the ability to serve Defendantsvia social networking following the 2009 cases of

MKM Capital Property Limited v Carmela Rita

Corbo and Gordon Kinsley Maxwell Poyser in

which the Australian Capital Territory Supreme

Court allowed service via a private message on

Facebook and the Canadian Case of Knott v

Sutherland in which service was affected by leaving a


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wall post on the Defendants account. Social media

has also been used by New Zealand since the 2008

case of Axe Market Gardens Ltd v Axe and the USA

in the 2011 case of Mpafe v Mpafe in which a

Minnesota Court allowed service of divorceproceedings via publication on the internet including

contact by Facebook, Myspace or other social

networking site.

There are yet to be any known cases of service by

social media in the Isle of Man, however, the Court

must constantly adapt to the changes in society. In

this age of social media where individuals lives are

organised and played out through the use of technology, how long will it be before service by

social media is permitted in the in the Courts of the

Isle of Man? Keep an eye upon your account! Are

you being served?

AssociateCLAIRE COLLISTER

[email protected]

This publication is intended only to provide a summary of the subject mattered covered. It does not purport to be comprehensive or to provide legal advice. No person should act in reliance on any statement contained in this publicationwithout first obtaining specific professional advice.September 2012 Appleby
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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