Nevada Rule of Civil Procedure1)NRCP4 states that a person must be served with notice of a lawsuit filed against him or her. The rule requires that someone be personally served with the legal papers and requires great effort be undertaken to find said person. The purpose of the rule is to ensure that someone is given fair notice of a legal proceeding against him or her so s/he will have every opportunity to show up to court and defend him or herself. If you cannot personally serve, sometimes you may send notice through the DMV, or you must file a motion with the court asking for permission to serve by publication. In the case of publication, notice of the lawsuit against someone will be posted in a newspaper for four week,s and this is deemed to be fair notice.
Facebook as a means to an end
It seems a bit backwards these days to require these great lengths to personally serve someone. If you are unable to find a person, to then require publication in a newspaper, whose readership is lower than it ever has been2)this is likely true for newspapers across the country. But what about modern methods of communication that people do read? For instance, what if you cannot personally serve someone, and you know there are sure-fire ways you can reach them through text or email? While these means of service are not a viable at this time, one judge in New York recently found that publishing notice of a lawsuit over Facebook is valid notice. In that case, a family court judge in Manhattan ruled that a soon-to-be ex-wife could serve her future ex-husband divorce papers through a private message on Facebook. The judge noted that this was a way the couple often communicated and when a process server could not personally find the husband, the judge knew that he would receive notice because he regularly responded to Facebook messages. The judge stated his belief that service over social media was “the next frontier” in the rules of service. The judge stressed that the Facebook message served that fundamental purpose of providing notice. The husband had no permanent address, no job, and appeared to be dodging service. The court required the notice to be sent over Facebook several times over a period of weeks, similar to the traditional publication rules.
It makes perfect sense that a judge could reach this conclusion, although it was quite nontraditional. Rare is the person these days who does not regularly use Facebook, and for those of us who do, it most likely a regular habit to check it and see what has been posted. So, if it is the policy of the court to do all we can to provide notice of a lawsuit against someone, sending a Facebook message makes much more sense than newspaper publication3)particularly where the notices are published in the paper; it might be a different story if the judicial notices were published on the front page. Fewer folks than ever read newspapers in this electronic-media age, so it is all the more likely someone will receive true and fair notice if posted on Facebook. If you find yourself in a situation where you cannot find an opposing party, it cannot hurt to think outside the box.
It does not seem too far off in the future that other courts might allow for service by publication through Facebook and other popular social media sites. But for the time being in Nevada, stick with traditional methods to ensure you properly serve notice of lawsuits. If you have questions about effectuating proper service, contact us today.
