Courtney Love wins in Twitter defamation case

LOS ANGELES

The jury found that Love did send the tweet in question, but did not libel her former attorney, Rhonda Holmes.

The case centered on one 2010 post that suggested that Holmes had been "bought off" and that was why she wasn't representing the singer anymore.

Love had hired Holmes to file a fraud case against the estate of her late husband, Kurt Cobain. The lawyer contended during the trial that she was fired by Love and that the tweet and other statements the singer made against her have caused her substantial damage.

The jury found that the Twitter statement was false, but Love didn't know that at the time. Love said she's glad she does not have to pay Holmes a single penny.

"Famous people just tend to pay people, and just pay people, and just pay people, and pay people quietly -- sometimes for nonsense, sometimes for stuff they've done. This case, we just decided not to and to just take it to the system. I didn't know if the system worked, and it does," said Love.

It took jurors just over three hours to reach their decision. Holmes' attorney, Mitchell Langberg, had asked the jury to award his client $8 million. Langberg said that while Holmes was disappointed with the verdict, her reputation was upheld and the world now knows that Love's statements were false.

"Nobody can ever again say Rhonda Holmes was bought off because a jury of her peers, 12 citizens of the state of California, have determined after listening to all the evidence that Rhonda Holmes was not bought off," said Langberg.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.