Courtney Love’s Twitter Defamation Lawsuit Win Upheld in Appeals Court

A few years ago, Courtney Love was sued by her former attorney Rhonda Holmes; the defamation lawsuit claimed that one of Love’s tweets damaged Holmes’ reputation. In January 2014, a California jury found that Love shouldn’t be held liable for defamation. As Billboard reports, an appeals court has upheld that decision.

Holmes was hired by Love for a fraud case against a group of people managing Kurt Cobain’s estate. In 2010, Love reportedly tweeted, “I was fucking devestated [sic] when Rhonda J. Holmes esq. of san diego was bought off.”

Love claimed that the tweet was meant to be a direct message, and when she realized her error, she quickly deleted it. The singer testified that she believed her tweet was the truth. The jury had to be convinced that Love knew her post was untrue; they determined that they hadn’t been provided convincing evidence to show that Love questioned the truth of her tweet. 

In yesterday’s opinion, Justice Thomas Willhite wrote, “…Substantial evidence supports the jury’s finding that Holmes did not prove by clear and convincing evidence that Cobain knew the statement was false or had serious doubts about the truth of the statement when she made it.” Read the full document.

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