Route 60 Hyundai v. Alascio [1]

Counsel for Route 60 Hyundai, a car dealership in Florida, sent a demand letter [2] to Thomas Alascio after he posted critical comments about the dealership on Twitter and Facebook.  The letter accused Alascio of defaming the company and demanded that he cease and desist from making futher defamatory comments and take all steps necessary to remove comments about Route 60 from the Internet.

Alascio published a series of comments over a two-week period in October 2009 after a dispute with a Route 60 employee. His tweets took the form of a running joke harping on Route 60's alleged inadequacies, saying that Route 60 is "the worst car dealership on the planet," that it "sucks," and that its service "stinks," among other things.

After receiving the demand letter, Alascio retained Marc Randazza as counsel, and Randazza sent a response letter [3] disputing the legal and factual sufficiency of Route 60's claims.  In particular, Randazza argued that all of Alascio's alleged statements were statements of opinion or rhetorical hyperbole, which are not capble of supporting a defamation action.  In addition, Randazza warned that his client would pursue sanctions and file a counterclaim for abuse of process if Route 60 filed a complaint.