No cyberlaw here, just a practice pointer. The trial court in this case, Sananikone v. United States, No. 07-cv-1434 (E.D. Calif. Feb. 25, 2009), held that the government's failure to find an individual by clicking through WestLaw's and Google's databases did not justify an order for alternative service, namely, service by publication.
In keeping with the above precedents, despite the Government's efforts to locate Mr. Vo, this Court cannot in good conscience grant leave to serve by publication here. The Government does generally reference searches conducted through westlaw.com and google.com, which are somewhat indicative of reasonableness. However, those efforts do not alone rise to the requisite level of both thorough and systematic. Moreover, while the Government's actions are not blatantly insufficient, neither has the Government demonstrated that it exhausted the myriad of other avenues available to locate Mr. Vo. Notably, the Government failed to contact Mr. Vo's known relatives, to inspect available public records, or to adequately follow up with Mr. Hogan. Additionally, the Government failed to exhaust the most obvious source of information as to Mr. Vo's whereabouts, his co-defendants in the instant Counterclaim. Indeed, the record is devoid of any attempt to obtain information from co-defendants, and, as such, the Government has failed to convince the Court it properly exhausted available means to find and serve Mr. Vo.
The court ordered the government to try, try again to find Mr. Vo.
Comments