Rhonda Holmes v. Courtney Love

Rhonda Holmes sued Courtney Love on a libel theory claiming that Love had slandered the plaintiff by posting a tweet on Twitter accusing Love of falsely suggested that an attorney who had represented her in a planned litigation against the estate of her late husband, Kurt Cobian, had been bribed to quit that case. She claimed that Holmes had been "bought off." Plaintiff sought $8 million in compensatory damages.

Plaintiff claimed that Love published the tweet, that there was clear and convincing evidence that it was false, and that the remark tended to be damaging to plaintiff's reputation.

Love claimed that she did not intend to publish the tweet but intended it to be a one-on-one private reply to an online query and tweeted the comment publicly by mistake. When she realized that the tweet was made public, she immediately deleted it.

Defendant's verdict despite the finding that Love published the tweet and that it was false and defamatory but awarded not damages.

Editor's Comment: It has been reported that this was the first defamation case in the United States based on a Twitter tweet.