The seemingly-endless Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reunion has concluded, but the Erika Jayne story is far from over. Erika’s still in the midst of lawsuits and financial disarray as trustees try to figure out how to pay off Tom Girardi’s millions of dollars in debt. Tom’s being accused of swindling settlement payments from his clients to fund his life with Erika. The million-dollar question is whether or not Erika was aware of or had any involvement in the alleged shady behavior. If you ask her, she just might threaten you. But thankfully, investigators are not so easily scared off.
Erika is facing a $25 million lawsuit that she’s been screaming to get dismissed. Yeah, and I want a $600k paycheck, but we don’t all get what we want sweetie. Additionally, the situation is even more complicated when real-life (alleged) victims are involved. While Tom has plenty of accusations pointed at him by a variety of clients, the victims of the Lion Air Flight 610 crash are at its center. And it’s the case that somewhat got the ball rolling against Tom’s alleged shady business practices. Family members of some of the victims emailed his firm weekly to bed for their payments. But he was too busy pumping money into Erika’s glam squad and closet to care (allegedly).
Now, Us Weekly has obtained recent court documents that show Erika’s lawyers continue to try to get the case against her dismissed. Her attorney Evan C. Borges says that Erika “never had and does not have any of the fee agreements between [the Girardi Keese firm] and the Lion Air clients.” The filing will potentially change Erika’s role in the case, according to investigator Ronald Richards. He says that using the illegal fee-sharing agreement exposes Edleson PC, a class action law firm representing the victims, to “discipline” in both California and Illinois, where the suits are filed.
Erika’s lawyer’s filing states that Edelson’s case against her “is based on an unethical, unenforceable and illegal fee-sharing agreement between Edelson and Girardi Keese, which will require that the Illinois litigation to be dismissed.” He also asked that if any fee agreements involving the Lion Air victims exist that comply with Illinois or California fee-splitting rules between Girardi Keese and Edleson that they should be provided to the court. I’m going to be honest, this stuff is hella confusing for a casual reality TV viewer. I’m gonna need Detective Sutton Stracke and her newly obtained law school knowledge to break it down for me.
RELATED: Erika Jayne Wants $25 Million Bankruptcy Lawsuit Tossed
Ronald tried to explain by saying that if Edelson doesn’t comply with the fee-splitting rules that they might lose the ability to collect their fees. In general, it sounds to me like Erika’s lawyers are looking for any loophole to get her out of this mess Scot-free. And I don’t blame them — that’s what they’re paid to do.
This whole situation does make me wonder what Erika will do if she does come out of this situation unscathed and isn’t required to pay back any of the alleged victims. She has been pretty desperate about wanting to find a rich guy. How about trying to BE the rich guy by working for yourself? Doing something besides flushing money down the drain on glam? Like, has she not learned ANYTHING about putting her financial future in the hands of a man? Apparently not. That’s only one of the reasons Erika will never be the hero in this story, no matter the outcome. She only cares about herself and has made that loud and clear to anyone watching RHOBH this year.
RELATED: Jerry O’Connell Slams Erika Jayne For Talking About Herself More Than Tom Girardi’s Alleged Victims
TELL US – DO YOU THINK ERIKA WILL GET THE LAWSUITS AGAINST HER DISMISSED? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF HER LAWYER’S RECENT FILING?
[Photo Credit: Bravo]
