UK court allows lawsuit to be delivered via NFT

After allowing for Facebook messages and Instagram direct messages for serving lawsuits, the UK court authorised the same via NFTs

By Shashank Bhardwaj

Image: Shutterstock

On Tuesday, UK law firm Giambrone & Partners issued a notice stating that the case brought by Fabrizio D'Aloia against Poloniex, Binance Holdings, OKC, Bitkub and gate.io for allegedly operating a fraudulent clone online brokerage. On June 24, the judge allowed the parties to airdrop the lawsuit NFTs into the wallets of D'Aloia, which originally belonged to him but were exploited by anonymous persons. The move can be called a legal precedent for offering digital solutions to serving someone a lawsuit via an NFT.

So far, Civil Procedure Rules in the UK authorised lawsuits to be served only by mail, personal services, dropped off at an address, or by fax or any type of ‘electronic communication’. The electronic approach to serving someone was liable when both the parties involved consented in advance for this type of delivery or the courts approved it for ‘good reasons’. Giambrone & Partners outlined these methods to include Facebook messages, Instagram direct messages, or through a website contact form.

The law firm said, "this order is a noteworthy development in the service of court documents and a welcome example of a court embracing new technology. The judgement paves the way for other victims of crypto asset fraud to pursue persons unknown who have misappropriated their crypto assets in situations where otherwise they would not do."

A Giambrone & Partners associate, Demetri Bezaintes, said, " I am confident that this latest judgement using NFT service has the potential to show the way to digital service over the blockchain, with all the benefits of immutability and authentication, becoming the usual practice in the future of legal matters related to the digital world [...] It is clear that this method of service has a far greater level of success over conventional means of service, such as post, in this sector."

The court set a precedent by making the alleged party serve through blockchain means and added that the crypto exchanges are responsible for keeping track of the exploited assets so that they don't move out or are withdrawn.

Giambrone & Partners law firm tweeted, “Our firm was the first law firm in the UK and in Europe to obtain permission by a High Court Judge to serve document proceedings related to a worldwide freezing injunction against unknown persons by NFT using the blockchain technology.”

In June, the US court had also authorised serving the defendant in the form of NFTs in an $8 million exploiting case of Liechtenstein-based crypto asset exchange LCX. Due to the temporary restraining orders, the legal team at the exchange airdropped NFTs into a hot wallet since the identification of the party to be served was unknown.

The writer is the founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash

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