Kiwi judge follows Australian Facebook precedent It seems our progressive Australian Court System isn’t the only one in the world wading into the virtual reality of Facebook and its 170 million plus inhabitants with virtual writ in virtual hand. A New Zealand court – the High Court no less – also deciding it was possible – and legal – to serve court documents to an individual who failed to turn up to face the music at their appointed hour. This case is following on from a landmark case which occured late 2008 in Australia as reported here in the December 12th 2008 edition of the Sydney Morning Herald – Australian court serves documents via Facebook
The old fashioned means of writing a letter, stamping the envelope and Australia Post being subpoenaed to disclose the address and contents of the recipient and sender under court order has just moved into the digital world. Emails have long been held as legally enforceable in court, it seems Facebooks ‘closed garden‘ bulletin board status is crumbling that little bit more and ‘privacy’ as most people perceive it is just that little bit less. Look out Facebook residents, your world just got more real again, as opposed to an escape.
The Culture Mind 