Tweets Can Be Libelious For Some - Especially In Chicago!

Horizon Realty and their appointed pariah Jeffrey Michael have certainly overstepped their bounds for sure but the last section in your story bothers me.

“But this does reflect the fcat (sp?) that Tweets can be hazardous to your wallet.”

To what fact are you referring to? Has this case already been heard by the courts and a ruling made? Hopefully you will be updating this as an opinion piece?

Hello tialoc,
Thanks for the correction. It seems spell check failed. The ‘fact’ I am referring to is the lawsuit itself. Whether the lawsuit is successful isn’t my point. What I see is that Amanda is going to need legal advice and it is going to cost her a few bucks.

It SHOULD get thrown out of court, BUT Horizon Realty can spend a million dollars prosecuting this and their dozens of high-powered lawyers can probably find a way to make it stick.

So maybe the moral of the story is: complain all you like about the mold, but don’t use the actual name of the realty company in your tweets. Such is the power of corporations in America today. They are greedy, mean, and totally without any redeeming ethical standards. (Damn, Horizon Realty will probably sue ME now!)

Well, if I were horizon, I would have contacted Bonnen and apologized if there was mold. And if horizon had in fact been defamed at all by the tweet, then they should have issued a statement through the press that was honest, saying that they will fix the problem.

People have the right to express their opinions about companies, public or not. Especially if it was true, which I believe it was. Why else would Horizon get on the defensive so fast?

Horizon looks even worse by the way they are handling all this.

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In my opinion, and I feel somewhat confident that its the opinionated consensus of society at large, that responding to something by saying “We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organisation,” is more damaging than what a single dis-satisfied customer says regardless of weather there is truth to the comment that customer makes.

I would avoid the company for no other reason than them actually filing the suit to begin with. It appears to be petty, if not merely spiteful. I’m not familiar with the finances of either party but the amount they are asking for seems like something that could bankrupt an individual yet I doubt the tweet could have had the same impact.

All of the above is of course merely my opinion and presumption and may be misguided. I don’t have all the facts. I will use this to make an unrelated comment on society, though, which is that its a sad, sad state when I end up feeling like I need to be very careful and include a disclaimer at the end of my feedback.

“We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization,”

“We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization,”

“We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization,”

Is it a contradiction to make that statement and then go on to say that you have a good reputation?

Dean - LOL

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