''Horizon Group Management v. Bonnen'', No.2009L008675 ( Ill. Cir. Ct. July20, 2009), was a

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

suit brought by Horizon Realty Group, a

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

real estate management company, against one of its former tenants, Amanda Bonnen, in

Cook County Circuit Court The Circuit Court of Cook County is the largest of the 24 judicial circuits in Illinois as well as one of the largest unified court systems in the United States — second only in size to the Superior Court of Los Angeles County since that court ...

. This case has received extensive publicity and touches on issues such as

consumer protection Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent business ...

, limits of libel,

free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been ...

, and

strategic lawsuits against public participation Strategic lawsuits against public participation (also known as SLAPP suits or intimidation lawsuits), or strategic litigation against public participation, are lawsuits intended to censorship, censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening ...

. The lawsuit was dismissed after a judge determined that the actions did not meet the definition of libel. Horizon contended that Bonnen defamed Horizon by posting a "tweet", or

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

message, on May 12, 2009, to her friends that said, "You should just come anyway. Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it's ok." Horizon asked for at least $50,000 for the alleged libel characterized by the plaintiff's attorney as " liable per se." The story was first made public by the ''ChicagoNow'' columnist Marian Wang. Jeffrey Michael, whose family runs Horizon, said the suit was warranted and that Horizon is "a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization." The lawsuit prompted widespread comment from journalists, bloggers, and legal experts. Sam Bayard, assistant director of

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

's Citizen Media Law Project called the suit "foolhardy", adding "They chose to file a lawsuit, instead drawing more attention to it," rather than handling the matter as a consumer complaint. Michael later stated that Bonnen's Twitter post emerged from an earlier lawsuit by Bonnen that Horizon violated the Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance, although Michael denied his suit was a

strategic lawsuit against public participation Strategic lawsuits against public participation (also known as SLAPP suits or intimidation lawsuits), or strategic litigation against public participation, are lawsuits intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with t ...

. The exact cause of Bonnen's lawsuit was not discussed by Michael, but he acknowledged a leaky roof at the apartment complex caused by a contractor in March 2009. Court documents revealed that Bonnen originally sued Horizon for failing to pay interest on security deposits and failing to provide tenants with required porch safety disclosures. Bonnen was represented by the Balough Law Offices, LLC, the Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law at John Marshall Law School and The Law Offices of Jeffrey S. Sobek, P.C. On January 21, 2010, Horizon's suit was dismissed; the judge felt the original tweet was too vague to meet the strict definition of libel.

References

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External links

* ''Horizon Group Management, LLC v Amanda Bonnen,'' Cook County No. 2009 L 8675
Complaint
United States Free Speech Clause case law United States defamation case law Illinois state case law Twitter controversies Strategic lawsuits against public participation 2010 in United States case law Law articles needing an infobox

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