When Courtney Love fell into a dispute with a clothing designer earlier this year, she aired her beef on MySpace and Twitter.
The designer sued Love for libel after the rocker claimed on her blog and in tweets that the designer was a thief, liar and drug dealer with a record of prostitution, according to court documents.
Love's case is one of the high-profile libel lawsuits involving comments on social networking sites. But you don't have to be famous to be sued. As more of us blog or tweet whatever pops into our minds, we run the risk that someone somewhere may take offense - rightly or wrongly - and sue. You could end up with big legal bills - without Love's deep pockets.
For this reason, it may be well worth buying insurance to make sure you are covered in case you are accused of making libelous or defamatory statements.
Cases against bloggers are growing as the number of bloggers rises, according to the Media Law Resource Center, which posts legal actions against bloggers.
Damages, too, can be stiff.
This year alone, a court awarded $129,794 to an Ohio woman after a blogger said her property was haunted, reports Media Law. Another blogger was ordered to pay $1.8 million after referring to someone as a "failed lawyer."
Of course, no one wants to squelch creativity or free speech. Besides, the more controversial or provocative the postings, the more followers you'll have. (Love has more than 29,000 followers on Twitter.)
But no matter how many followers you have, you can be sued.
"People will sue each other if they feel they have been libeled or humiliated or defamed in some fashion," says Peter Spicer, communications manager for Chubb Personal Insurance.
"Blogging has made everybody in the world a potential editor-in-chief. In the past, you might have had a day or two to cool down or ... to shoot that letter via snail mail to [the newspaper]. There was someone there who would police what you said. All or some of it might make it into the newspaper," Spicer says. "Today, in a matter of a half-hour you could have set up your blog and gone out and said your piece about any number of issues."
Even if you're careful about what you say, your children might not be. Disparaging remarks they make about, say, a teacher could also lead to legal woes.
Homeowner's policies typically cover you if guests trip in your house and are injured. But you need "personal injury" coverage to protect you against claims of libel, slander and defamation.
