Notification of Parental Rights Over Facebook Held Invalid

Many estate planning concerns revolve around a desire to provide for family and the next generation, which often means children. It may seem obvious that to plan for children, one must know who their children are, but sometimes the issue gets complicated. In a recent custody battle in Oklahoma, the case turned on whether a Facebook message amounts to adequate notice of the existence of a child.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court held that a pregnant teen mother who sent a Facebook message to the father of her unborn child to inform him that she was pregnant, did not adequately notify him for purposes of later terminating his parental rights and making arrangements for the child to be adopted.

See Jacob Gershman, Court: Facebook Not a Valid Way for Mom to Tell Dad She’s Pregnant, The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 17, 2014.

Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.