Home » Answers Hub » Service by WhatsApp or social media
Only with the court's permission. WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and similar platforms are not standard methods of service, but the court can authorise them as alternative service under CPR 6.15 where there is good reason, typically a defendant who cannot be served conventionally but demonstrably uses the account. English courts have permitted service this way for years, and have even authorised service by blockchain based means in the right case.
The question comes up for one kind of defendant: findable online, unfindable at any door. The rules answer it not by adding messaging apps to the standard methods but by giving the court a discretion to fit the method to the defendant.
An application under CPR 6.15 asks the court to permit service by a method not otherwise allowed. The applicant must show good reason, and for a messaging or social platform that means evidence on two points: conventional service has failed or is impracticable, usually demonstrated through a professional server's documented attempts and address enquiries, and the account genuinely belongs to and is used by the defendant, shown through recent activity, replies, read indicators, mutual connections or content plainly authored by them. Courts have granted such orders for WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram among others, and the jurisdiction is flexible enough that service has been authorised by non fungible token where a fraud defendant was identifiable only by a cryptocurrency wallet.
Orders are specific: which account, what exactly must be sent, often a message summarising the proceedings with the documents attached or linked, and when service is deemed to occur. Compliance should be evidenced meticulously, screenshots, delivery and read markers, a witness statement, because a defendant served unconventionally is a defendant with an incentive to attack the service later. The court can also validate retrospectively: where steps already taken, a WhatsApp message that plainly reached the defendant, have brought proceedings to their attention, CPR 6.15(2) allows those steps to stand as good service.
Nobody starts with WhatsApp. The persuasive application is built on exhausted conventional routes: verified addresses attempted at varied times, a trace confirming no better address exists, and only then the platform evidence. That groundwork is precisely what a professional process server and tracing agent assemble, and it is the difference between an order granted on the papers and an application sent away for more evidence.
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This page provides general information about the law and practice in England and Wales and is not legal advice. Rules change and individual circumstances vary; always take advice from a solicitor on your specific situation. Prices shown are indicative, exclusive of VAT and confirmed in writing before any work begins.