Woman To File For Divorce Via Facebook Message

We use Facebook for many things — keeping up-to-date on friends' lives, (re)connecting with long-lost classmates across the country, and seeing pictures of our friend's new beau or children (or lunch). Anything and everything can be publicized and shared, from updating our relationship status to "in a relationship" or back to "single" when we're no longer together. But, now, it has a new purpose altogether: the first person ever to do so, Elanora Baidoo, will issue divorce papers on Facebook.

There are several reasons for divorce, from infidelity to lack of communication. Usually, one spouse serves the other papers or they both decide and obtain a joint petition for divorce. Though people have notified their spouse through email that they wanted a divorce, Facebook is a novel outlet. But when one spouse goes missing, though loosely stays in touch, what then?

Elanora Baidoo, 26, has become the first person to file for divorce through Facebook. Her lawyer, Andrew Spinnell, is using private messages on the site to serve Baidoo’s husband with the divorce summons, according to the New York Daily News. Baidoo and her husband, Victor Sena Blood-Dzraku, both from Ghana, were married in 2009. Blood-Dzraku went back on his promise to having a traditional Ghanaian wedding ceremony and things went awry from there. The marriage was never consummated and the couple never lived together.

A Daily Mail article says that Blood-Dzraku disappeared in 2011 and has only stayed in touch with his wife through phone and Facebook. He has no permanent address or job, and even a private investigator failed to find him, reported the New York Daily News.

“This transmittal shall be repeated by plaintiff's attorney to defendant once a week for three consecutive weeks or until acknowledged." - Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Matthew Cooper

Last week, the first Facebook message was sent to Blood-Dzraku. He has yet to respond.

Whether you "like" it or not, divorce via Facebook may be more common in the future and more complicated than simply changing your status from "married" to "divorced."

Images: Facebook (1); Giphy (2-3)