Social Media In The Workplace - Recent Case Law Developments

Employee use of the Internet, social media sites such as Facebook and blogging raises new challenges for employers. Increasingly, the line between "work" and "play" is blurred. All Western-based employers will be interested in the following recent cases from Alberta and British Columbia that concern social media:

Service through Facebook: Knott Estate v. Sutherland

In February 2009, Master Breitkreuz of the Alberta Queen's Bench granted an order permitting the plaintiffs to serve one of several defendants by: a) publishing a notice in the newspaper; b) forwarding a copy of the Statement of Claim to the Human Resources Department where that defendant had previously worked; and c) sending notice of the action to that defendant's Facebook profile. Although precedent for "service by Facebook" exists in Australia and New Zealand, this appears to have been the first order of its kind in Canada.