In today’s digital era of social media dominance, the Supreme Court of New South Wales Court of Appeal has just rejected an attempt by a music promoter to serve Court documents on American rap artist Flo Rida by posting a message on his Facebook page advising him he had been sued in the District Court of New South Wales. The District Court had also directed the promoter to send a copy of the Court documents via email to an employee of Flo Rida’s management company in Miami, Florida. When Flo Rida failed to appear, the District Court proceeded to enter judgment against him for over $400,000.
KCL Law (formerly Kliger Partners) appealed the judgment on several grounds, including arguing that service by posting a notice on Facebook was invalid. Importantly, this was substituted service which is used when a person cannot serve court documents personally. In order to be valid, substituted service must be shown to be likely to bring the proceedings to the attention of the defendant. Substituted service on someone outside of Australia is even more difficult because normally jurisdiction is territorial.
Accordingly, the Court of Appeal threw out the District Court’s decision allowing substituted service by Facebook, stating there was no evidence that the Facebook page was in fact his and there was no evidence that the posting was likely to come to Flo Rida’s attention in a timely fashion.
It is likely that further decisions will be rendered in Australian Courts, and worldwide, regarding the issue of serving court documents via email and Facebook. For now the Court of Appeal in New South Wales has made it clear that service by Facebook on overseas parties is unlikely to be valid although each case will need to be considered on its facts.
More information
For more information please contact David Weinberger on (03) 8600 8863 or dweinberger@kcllaw.com.au
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