Like Getting Served? Ruling May Bring Court Summons To SoCal Facebook Pages

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The next time you log on to your Facebook account, don't be surprised if the long arm of the law gets you a few more friends.

Los Angeles attorney Steve Meister told KNX 1070 that the case of a British judge allowing lawyers to use the social network to serve an elusive former employee could easily happen here in the Southland.

"It's only a matter of time," said Meister. "How big a difference is it that you can serve someone on Facebook versus serve them via a scanned email document? Not that big a difference."

The ruling from the U.K. High Court does not necessarily herald the dawn of a new legal era — the practice has already gone on in courts from Britain to New Zealand and Australia — but it does underscore the emerging integration of social networking into the legal process.

And according to Meister, a Facebook summons may even prove to grease the wheels of justice in the state of California.

"It's probably easier to serve them through social media, and I think this is probably an inevitability, an idea whose time has come," he said.

Section 415.20 of the California Rules of Civil Procedure state that any summons "may be served by leaving a copy of the summons and of the complaint at such person's dwelling house, usual place of abode, usual place of business, or usual mailing address".

And while there is currently no provision in place allowing for a summons to be served online, Meister said he doesn't expect the traditional and creative process servers -- even those who have resorted using unconventional methods — to go out of business any time soon.

"In the age of the Internet and technology, it's probably easier to reach somebody on Facebook then through a kitchen zipline," he said.