The New Zealand legal system may follow in the footsteps of Australia by serving legal documents via Facebook.

In what is believed to be a world first, Canberra lawyer Mark McCormack used the internet to track a couple who had defaulted on a six-figure loan and serve them with a default judgment.

McCormack believes using the internet, and Facebook, could easily be repeated in New Zealand.

The traditional method of serving legal documents is through a public notice in the classified section of newspapers.

The Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court approved lawyer Mark McCormack's application last week to use Facebook to serve the legally binding documents after several failed attempts to contact the couple at the house and by email.

In the ruling, Master David Harper insisted that the documents be attached to a private email sent via Facebook that could not be seen by others visiting the pages.

Australian courts have given permission in the past for people to be served via email and text messages when it was not possible to serve them in person.

McCormack, a keen Facebook user, said using the popular social networking site to contact people who flee was the logical "next step".

"It's one of those occasions where you feel most at home with what you know and I myself have a Facebook account," McCormack said.