Courtney Love Tweets Herself Into a Legal Hole, Round 2
The former Hole lead singer and infamous widow of Kurt Cobain is digging herself deeper in that legal hole we wrote about. Courtney Love has been denied protection with California's Anti-SLAPP law by Judge Aurelio Munoz in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The denial stems from a lawsuit for libel via the social networking tool Twitter. The Los Angeles clothing designer Dawn Simorangkir brought a suit for libel when Ms. Love tweeted about the designer calling her a thief, drug dealer, and an unfit mother.
Anti-SLAPP law stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation which helps dismiss lawsuits that are intended to silence an individual's right to speak about public matters.
According to Online Media Daily, Munoz ruled that Love's tweets about designer Dawn Simorangkir didn't concern a matter of public interest, according to Simorangkir's lawyer, Bryan Freedman. Munoz also found that the designer was likely to prevail at trial, Freedman says.
Love claims that her statements about the designer were indeed of public concern because she was trying to warn others about doing business with her.
The clincher? Even though Munoz ruled that Love's tweets are not of public concern, Love still insists they are! Love plans on appealing the ruling.
While Love's tweets have nothing to do with Dawn Simorangkir's work as a professional, Love still wants to believe that her tweets conveyed the designer's lack of professionalism: "We simply don't agree with the court that it is not in the public interest to be allowed to speak out when one believes consumers are being ripped off," attorney Keith Fink says.
Related Resources:
- Courtney Love Tweets Herself Into a Legal Hole, Gets Sued for Libel (Findlaw's Injured Blog)
- Courtney Love sued for Twitter defamation (Reuters)
- Defenses to Libel and Slander (Findlaw)
- Defamation, Libel, and Slander (Findlaw)
- Proving Libel or Slander (in FAQ) (provided by Silvers, Langsam & Weitzman, P.C.)
- Personal Injury - An Overview (provided by Law Offices of Barry Levinson)