HOUSTON – Houston trial lawyer John H. Kim, founder of The Kim Law Firm, is featured in a recent Houston Business Journal news story about a bill in the Texas legislature that would allow notices of lawsuits and subpoenas to be served through social media.
Mr. Kim was quoted in the April 2, 2013, story “Houston lawyers wary of new bill to serve legal papers via social media,” which examined the bill sponsored by State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, to allow Texas courts to serve legal papers using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Mr. Kim told the newspaper that he is wary of the notion but expects it will become the norm eventually.
“I think as a general rule it’s a dangerous proposition for constitutional due process issues,” Mr. Kim said in the article. “However, I think it’s probably inevitable based on where our society, international business commerce and the legal process is headed.”
He told the reporter that social media service could help U.S. companies looking to serve businesses that are based in foreign countries, but cautioned that it can be extremely difficult to serve a foreign company that has only a “shell” office in this country and that tries to dodge service.
Mr. Kim said if the bill becomes law, he hopes courts will only use social media to serve legal papers as a last resort, and that judges will give guidance about the constitutional due process of using social media websites such as LinkedIn to serve lawsuit notices.
A veteran of numerous courtroom trials, Mr. Kim is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and served as the past president of the group’s Houston chapter. He has earned selection to the Texas Super Lawyers list all 10 years since the list was first published in 2003.
The Kim Law Firm has recovered more than half a billion dollars for clients through aggressive litigation. The firm represents entrepreneurs, business start-ups, mid-sized companies, and established national and international corporations in everything from contract and complex business disputes to insider trading allegations, trade secrets and other intellectual
property disputes. Mr. Kim and his firm represent plaintiffs and defendants nationwide in oil & gas litigation, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, securities litigation, claims of tortious interference, price fixing and other antitrust actions.
