Professor Amalia Kessler contributes to a program on NPR on the practice of serving legal documents in person, as opposed to through more modern methods, like the Internet. 

A judge in New York recently allowed one woman to serve her husband divorce papers through Facebook. The case made national news because this almost never happens.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

A woman in New York City recently served her husband with divorce papers using Facebook. A judge said this was fine after the woman spent years trying to file for divorce by having papers served to him by hand. And this got Steven Henn from our Planet Money team wondering why courts still insist on delivering so many legal documents the old-fashioned way.

STEVE HENN, BYLINE: This idea of serving a summons by hand – delivering a legal document in person that orders you to appear before a court – this is a pretty old idea. In fact, it dates back to the Middle Ages – think, like, Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham. For centuries, only sheriffs could serve a summons to appear before a court. And these documents had a special name.

AMALIA KESSLER: In the Court of Common Pleas it was the writ of capias ad respondendum.

HENN: The writ of capias…

KESSLER: Ad respondendum.