In 2015, Andrew Spinnell made new divorce law in New York in the Baidoo v. Dzraku case when the New York Supreme Court for the first time permitted Ms. Baidoo to serve divorce papers by Facebook on Mr. Dzraku, rather than by publication in a newspaper. Such service provides actual nature to the defendant of a pending divorce proceeding, whereas publication in a newspaper while legally permitted often gives no actual notice to the defendant.

Ms. Baidoo was separated from her husband Mr. Dzraku, who moved out of the marital residence to an address and city unknown to her and which he would not advise her. All she had was his Facebook name and account and his cellphone number. A search of his cell phone carrier did not reveal his address. So I made a motion to the Court for permission to serve the divorce Summons with Notice by Facebook. The motion was granted. And then the print and social media published the decision including the New York Daily News, which found Mr. Dzraku’s Facebook account including his picture and published it in the newspaper. Mr. Dzraku was living in Philadelphia, PA and saw the Daily News article about him.  He then called our office and after service of the divorce Summons on Facebook came into the office to sign an Affidavit consenting to an uncontested divorce.  Thus new divorce law came into effect that made Ms. Baidoo a happily divorced spouse.