Sydney - An Australian lawyer used the social networking website Facebook to track down a defaulting couple when all other conventional methods to find them failed, news reports said Tuesday.

A judge of the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court allowed lawyer Mark McCormack to use Facebook to serve legal documents to a couple who defaulted on a home loan and couldn't be found at their listed address.

The court also granted him permission to send them emails and leave the court papers at their last known address.

"I think the courts will continue to adopt it (Facebook) on a case by case basis. They will need to assure themselves that it is reasonably likely to bring (it) to the attention of the parties concerned," McCormack, a keen Facebook user who works for a Canberra law firm, told the Australian Associated Press national news agency.

The couple's Facebook sites, listing each other as "Friends," had their names, dates of birth and email addresses, and the judge granted permission to McCormack to use the site but stipulated that the papers be sent via a private email so that other people visiting the page could not read the contents.

The couple, who had defaulted on a 100,000-Australia-dollar (about 67,000-US-dollar) loan from a mortgage provider, now risk having their home repossessed, thanks to the unusually long arm of the law.

Earlier, Australian courts allowed use of email and text messages to serve people with legal documents. (dpa)