Real Estate Blogger Leveled With Huge Lawsuit
image: miami sun post
Pictured above is Mega Developer Tibor Hollo in the Miami Sun Post last year, who has leveled a $25 Million Defamation Suit against a Florida real estate blogger.
source Miami Herald: read full article
The Good, Bad, The Blogger
Developer Tibor Hollo has filed a $25 million defamation lawsuit against a Miami real estate agent who blogged that the octogenarian went bankrupt in the 1980s and is headed for a fall with the upheaval in the condo market.
What did the agent say?
”My opinion is that this development is doomed,” he wrote on Jan. 10.
What does the expert say?
Robert Jarvis, a constitutional law and ethics professor at Nova Southeastern University, who isn’t involved in the case, said he doubts Lechuga will be held liable.
”Courts understand [blogs] are written in unedited, unvetted fashion,” Jarvis said. “There’s a lot of hyperbole. That’s why it’s so difficult to win defamation lawsuits.”
What does the so-called defamed say?
”I guess when you’re running a blog [you] think [you] can say anything about anybody, and that’s just not true,” Hollo said. He called the postings “plain, unadulterated lies.”
Who Wins?
I predict the agent will get off the hook, but the developer is already winning. The agent has already lost his job, and because the agent was fired is left to financially defend himself against a huge developer. This is a sad day for free speech, but a great day for the re.net. Obviously those that would minimize the re.net have failed if the reality is people are paying attention enough to care what a blogger has to say.
The Lesson?
Be careful what charge you lead. You may be right, but right is only as deep as your back pocket.
