A New York judge recently entered an Order allowing a woman to serve her husband divorce papers via Facebook. In Iowa, generally, a competent adult must accept service or be served in-person in order accomplish proper service. The woman in New York had been trying to accomplish service for several years according to her attorney. Her husband denied having a physical address or place of employment and also refused to make himself available for service. After having exhausted other alternative service methods, the Judge ruled that service could be made via Facebook so long as it could be demonstrated that the Facebook account belonged to her husband and that he consistently logged on to the account. With the increasing popularity of
Facebook and Twitter, it will be interesting to see if Iowa Courts follow suit and allow service via social media.