Facebook Status: Baby Due! Legally, It’s Complicated…

October 31st, 2014. By LucyC

An interesting ruling about Facebook recently—reflective of changing generational attitudes on appropriate communication. Bottom line, while it may be OK to tell friends and family that you’re expecting a baby via Facebook—the social media goliath is not an appropriate medium by which pregnant women may notify the biological father of the child, according to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

The ruling stems from a case brought by the biological father of a child who was given up for adoption by the birth mother. Billy McCall alleged he had no knowledge of the child until “a week after the child was born.” The mother had voluntarily given up her rights a little over a month after giving birth, however, according to The Wall Street Journal, McCall had his parental rights terminated in 2013 by a trial court almost a year after the baby had been born. When McCall learned of this he didn’t want to give up his child, which left the adoptive parents in a mess and possibly without the child they assumed would be theirs.

It turns out that in Oklahoma courts recognize that unwed fathers have some parental rights with regard to their children, as long as they are given proper notice of their existence and acknowledge them. FYI Oklahoma is not the only state that recognizes paternal rights of children born out of wedlock. Apparently, courts want to see whether a father in that situation acknowledged that the child was his and subsequently took steps to take responsibility for parenting.

In his lawsuit, McCall claimed that he did acknowledge parentage and take steps to parent, but was late in doing so because of a lack of notice of the pregnancy by the mother. For the record, she alleges she sent him a Facebook message at some point before she gave birth. And the court said…sorry—but an FB message ain’t gonna cut it.

I realize this may seem antiquated, but snail mail is still an option, if you know to use it. I would have thought there are several advantages to the good old pony express—not the least of which would be privacy. But, what do I know. I’m not sure it’s something I’d want to find out about on FB—if I were the father. And, how do you know it’s not a hoax?

In delivering the Supreme Court’s 6-3 majority ruling, Justice Douglas Combs wrote that Facebook is “an unreliable method of communication” which is insufficient to meet the state’s requirement that mothers give notice of pregnancy to fathers. While this ruling is clear, the law generally is not, so much. For example, while General Motors uses FB to notify customers of recalls—most notably the recent defective ignition switch recall, it’s not clear whether notice of lawsuits can be served on FB, for example.

Enquiring minds want to know—what happens if the servers go down, or your account is hacked, or the recipient doesn’t use FB regularly? If the intended recipient doesn’t get the intended message for any of those reasons, would FB be liable? Assuming someone has regular access to FB is dangerous, particularly in cases such as this, as the adoptive parents are finding out to the misery. In a case where a baby is being adopted at or shortly after birth, termination of parental rights, based on the assumption the biological father knows about the child, is a very big deal for all concerned. Hearts will be broken and lives changed forever. I wonder if an email would suffice?

This was posted on Friday, October 31st, 2014 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Crazy Sh*t Lawyers See . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.