A court has granted the first ever instance of the use a text message to serve an individual.
The temporary protective custody order was issued by Judge Laura Cordero of the District of Columbia. As part of the complaint against the defendant, the plaintiff cited many instances of unwanted text messages, which according to Serve Now including more than 280 text messages. The abundant use of text messaging no doubt influenced the court as to the defendant’s knowledge of and frequency of use of the technology.
As with many of the interesting methods of service we’ve seen recently (Facebook, Twitter, e-mail), multiple instances were made to locate and serve the individual through traditional methods including multiple stake outs and attempted service at the defendant’s workplace. Service by text message was not the initial method of service attempted.
With more than 90% of American adults owning a cell phone, this ruling could have interesting implications for alternate methods of service.
For more details, go here.
