Legal Papers Served Via Facebook
CANBERRA lawyers for lending company MKM Capital have won the right to serve legal binding documents to defendants via their Facebook profiles in a quite worrying case.
The Supreme Court allowed MKM to chase Carmel Rita Corbo and Gordon Kingsley Maxwell Poyser via the social network after the defendants refused to keep up with mortgage loan repayments to MKM from 2007. Their lawyer Meyer Vanderberg has been granted the ability to serve judgment on the couple after private investigators failed to locate the couple a number of times at their home between October and early December. Through proving two Facebook profiles belonged to Corbo and Poyser the lawyers for MKM Mark McCormack and Jason Oliver won the case on the basis that:
“The Facebook profiles showed the defendants’ dates of birth, email addresses and friend lists and the co-defendants were friends with one another.” (spokesman for the firm)
What this means for the Internet and users of social networks is possibly frightening. How far must one go to protect their ability to be found? Is there really a safe haven on the Internet anywhere? We must be reminded once again that this is most definitely not the case.
Surely you can’t be suggesting that people who volunteer & upload countless facts & tidbits about themselves be concerned over privacy? I think frightening may be a bit of an overaction – more like common sense.
@ James
There was no suggestion that either defendant uploaded countless facts about themselves, rather that they themselves were accessible. Even the basic information they listed was enough to have lawyers chase them down via the network. Even you’ve given your contact e-mail address and name just to leave a quick comment on this post. Maybe people forget that such little info can be used by others against them. Many put information out there and then disconnect believing they’re “back on earth” after a bit of fun in an alternate dimension. What I could have included in my conclusion is that content on the Internet is most definitely not above the law despite many still believing otherwise.