A Los Angeles jury determined Friday that musician Courtney Love did not defame her former lawyer on social media.
Following eight days of courtroom testimony and statements, a jury of six men and six women needed only three hours of deliberation to determine that a tweet by Love was within her right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression.
The Hole singer hired San Diego attorney Rhonda Holmes in 2008 to represent her in a fraud case against the estate of her late husband Kurt Cobain. Their business relationship ended abruptly six months later.
Courtney, falsely believing that the estate had gotten to her lawyer, thought she was sending a private message to a pair of bloggers when she tweeted, “@noozjunkie I was devastated when Rhonda J Holmes Esq of San Diego was bought off. @fairnewsspears perhaps you can get a quote.”
She soon realized the message had not been private and deleted it from her Twitter page. Holmes promptly filed a defamation lawsuit seeking $8 million in damages.
After her court victory, Love told reporters, “I feel really good. I am relieved. I am really happy to have had good counsel for the first time in 24 years. The jury believed me because I told the truth.”
Because the case was the first of its kind to go to trial, it was followed closely by the legal community. In this case, the plaintiff was not able to prove that it sufficiently harmed her reputation.
Love’s tweet was viewed by jurors as an opinion that was expressed to two individuals and seen by few others before it was deleted. It was only widely viewed after Holmes filed her libel suit.
Photo: WENN