First High-Profile “Twibel” Case Of Defamation Ends

The jury has sided with Courtney Love in the defamation case brought up against her by a former lawyer. The lawsuit centered around a tweet by Love implying that the lawyer had been “bought off” for not pursuing a lawsuit over her late husband’s estate. The whole trial spanned eight days and after three hours of deliberation on Friday, according to USA Today. The specific tweet that the case was centered around was posted by Love in 2010 and suggested that San Diego attorney Rhonda Holmes had been “bought off” and that was why she wasn’t representing the singer anymore.

Love was accused of defamation against her former lawyer in the Cobain lawsuit.

Holmes originally represented the Hole vocalist in a lawsuit against the estate of her late husband, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. During the trial that ended on Friday, Holmes claimed that she had been fired by Love and that the tweets issued by her former client had caused significant damage to her reputation. Love’s tweet stated, “I was (expletive) devastated when Rhonda J Holmes Esq of san diego was bought off” in response to a question from user of the popular social media site.

Love’s defence claimed that the tweet was never meant to be public and that she had instead intended to send it as a direct message. She wasn’t present at the verdict, having left court after the closing arguments earlier on Friday. She did return later as the courthouse was closing down and met her attorneys, John Lawrence and Matthew Bures in the hallway, where she proceeded to hug them both.

The trial has been widely publicized as the very first case of “Twibel”. It was bound to happen eventually with the unstoppable rise of social media as a means of communication. However, according to Lawrence, it was tried by the same rules as traditional defamation cases. Love explained that she had stayed away from social media for the duration of the trial. She did, however, post a brief status afterwords, thanking her legal team.