Nobody likes the divorce process. It’s painful, and people often do whatever they can to avoid it, especially when it comes to being served divorce papers. Just ask Joan from Mad Men. Tracking down your estranged spouse can be tricky. Thankfully, there’s Facebook. A Manhattan Supreme Court judge has ruled that you can now file divorce papers via a private message on the social network. Justice Matthew Cooper issued the landmark ruling in the case of Ellanora Baidoo, who has been trying to divorce her husband, Victor Sena Blood-Dzraku, for several years (although I can’t imagine why: who doesn’t want to be called Mrs. Ellanora Baidoo-Blood-Dzrazku? It veritably trips off the tongue. Perhaps because she’s a nurse, some of her patients were getting concerned.)
In any event, Baidoo’s lawyer will send Blood-Dzraku divorce summons “once a week for three consecutive weeks or until acknowledged.” Blood-Dzrasku has no fixed address and keeps in contact with Baidoo through Facebook, but evidently does not wish to get divorced (the couple were married in 2009 in a traditional Ghanaian wedding ceremony, but the marriage was never consummated). The first message has already been sent, but so far has not been acknowledged. Presumably he won’t be updating his status to “being divorced” anytime soon, perhaps because he doesn’t want people “Liking” it. The Facebook ruling can only be the start of a trend; I expect soon we will be able to tweet subpoenas (probably through a service called something like @PrincessProcessServer).