( CNN ) Recently , a New York judge issued an opinion authorizing service of divorce papers on a husband completely via Facebook . What exactly is `` service of process '' ? Serving people with legal papers is an industry and its own body of law premised on one guiding principle : if you are going to sue someone , you should at least let them know about it . Sounds simple , right ? In theory it is . In practice , it turns out people do n't like being sued . It also turns out that , to many defendants , procrastination of a lawsuit is a viable defense . Just as you may avoid bad news in life , defendants tend to avoid process servers . Once a defendant has been served , that means the judicial proceedings begin . Unfortunately , that means defendants have an incentive to go `` off the grid '' . Although every state is different , the law of service of process has evolved this way : the ideal and fairest way to notify a person of a lawsuit is to have another human hand the papers to the defendant in person , and have some proof that the person was the defendant . In-person service is not always possible , for obvious reasons . So , the law had to develop methods of alternate service , but carefully balance a defendant 's right to have notice of a lawsuit , against a diligent plaintiff 's access to court if a defendant is avoiding the inevitable . As reliable as the U.S. mail is , regular mail is not a reliable form of serving papers . Not because the postmen ca n't be trusted ; they can . Neither snow , nor rain , nor heat , nor gloom of night , will keep them from delivering those papers . Instead , it 's defendants -- no wait , all of humanity -- that ca n't be trusted . Every one of us has ignored mail or even pretended we did n't get it . Defendants are no different . One form of alternate service is `` nail and mail '' service . This means that you take a hammer and nail , and nail the papers to the defendant 's front door . The problem with that is that many defendants are nomadic by nature . Just because you find a house that a defendant stayed at , does n't mean he 'll be back there anytime soon . Another , even odder form of `` service '' is service by publication . This is an almost laughable legal fiction . If you ca n't find a defendant , a judge might let you serve by publication . That means that a plaintiff can take out an ad in five point font for a week in an obscure publication , on the off chance you are reading the classified ads of the Secaucus Law Journal looking for lawsuits against you . As laughable as serving someone by tweeting it sounds , it 's at least more rational than this antiquated method . At first blush , the idea of service by Facebook seems to offend traditional notions of ensuring notification of a defendant of a case against him . When it comes to serving papers , however , `` traditional '' does n't necessarily mean `` good . '' Service by publication or nailing paper to the door of an empty apartment is hardly reliable ; it 's just service of last resort . For those people who are concerned that being served papers will become a Facebook announcement in a news feed , along with the photos of dinner or kittens , to be `` liked '' by all your gawking `` friends , '' we 're not quite there ... yet . While the older forms of alternate service were public , most electronic service takes the form of email . Where email is n't available , it is Facebook private messaging , which should be as private as email . That 's the form of service authorized by the court here . So for now , we 're not quite putting lawsuits on Instagram ... but I would n't rule it out in the future . Online service may be a new frontier , but it 's not unheard of . Most of us exist more online now than we `` live '' in a particular condo , or Mom 's basement . Virtually everyone has a phone or access to the Internet . Not everyone has a lease or a mortgage . Plus , online service has the added benefit of tracking . Believe me , somewhere , some computer has already logged the fact that you read this article , how long you read it , and even how far down you scrolled before you got bored and bailed on the article ( thanks for still being here , by the way ) . In a way , maybe online service is long overdue . You can outrun a process server for a while , but sooner or later , all of us have to go back online -- and no human can outrun an email .
A court allowed a wife to serve divorce papers via Facebook . Mom : Why not let people be found via social media ?