Erika Jayne has settled a $25 million lawsuit brought by a trustee tied to Tom Girardi’s 2020 involuntary bankruptcy of Girardi Keese, court records show. The deal, announced as the case neared trial in California, vacates pending motions and hearing dates—tho
Erika Jayne’s legal fight was headed for a courtroom showdown, but by the time the calendar reached trial, the case had quietly ended. Court records obtained for the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California show Jayne resolved a $25 million lawsuit that had been pending for years.
The paperwork says the matter was settled just as it was set to go to trial and that “all pending motions and hearing dates are hereby vacated and taken off calendar.” The settlement amount was not disclosed.
Jayne, 54, is best known as the star of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” and she has long denied the allegations that sparked the case. There has also been no criminal charge filed against her.
The lawsuit traces back to Tom Girardi’s financial collapse. In 2020. Girardi Keese—the law firm run by embattled former attorney Tom Girardi. Jayne’s estranged husband—was hit with an involuntary bankruptcy. The trustee overseeing that bankruptcy then sued Jayne in 2021. alleging she took more than $25 million from the practice for personal expenses.
Girardi’s prison sentence has loomed over the couple’s public fallout. He. 86. is currently serving time in a Los Angeles prison after being convicted by a jury on four counts of wire fraud. He was sentenced to more than seven years behind bars. began serving the sentence in July. and was ordered to pay $2. 310. 247 in restitution plus a $35. 000 fine.
Long before the verdict, federal prosecutors described a darker picture of Girardi’s conduct at the firm. A previous statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said he allegedly “operated Girardi Keese like a Ponzi-scheme by providing a litany of lies for failure to pay clients” from 2010 to 2020.
Prosecutors also alleged that he used tens of millions of dollars to pay “illegitimate expenses,” including more than $25 million that was diverted to Jayne’s company, EJ Global.
Jayne’s response to the lawsuit has remained rooted in denial. and she addressed the case publicly during part one of the “RHOBH” Season 15 reunion. She laid out the range of possibilities in plain. blunt terms: “You can file for bankruptcy. or you can fight it out in court. You can go to trial, you can cut a deal, you can die in the streets. I have no idea.”.
The legal timeline has followed a familiar arc for high-profile financial cases—major accusations. prolonged litigation. and then a sudden pivot away from a trial date. In this case. the trustee’s lawsuit began in 2021 and reached the point where it was scheduled to go to trial. only for court scheduling to be wiped clean once the settlement was reached.
The dispute also sits inside a broader story that has been difficult for Jayne to separate from Girardi’s public fall. The two met in 1998 and married for 21 years. Jayne announced their split in November 2020, just weeks before news of his legal troubles emerged.
Girardi’s prominence is part of why the allegations hit so hard. He was a famed personal injury attorney, including being the lead attorney in the 1993 groundwater contamination lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric that later inspired the 2000 Oscar-nominated film “Erin Brockovich.”
In a statement at the time of sentencing, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli called Girardi “this self-proclaimed ‘champion of justice’” and said he was “nothing more than a thief and a liar who conned his vulnerable clients out of the millions of dollars.”
With the trustee’s suit now resolved without a trial, the remaining public question is what happens next—not in court filings, but in how Jayne’s legal exposure is reshaped by a settlement reached at the last possible moment.
For now, the court’s order makes one thing clear: this case is off the schedule, and any pending motions and hearing dates have been vacated and removed from the calendar.
Erika Jayne Tom Girardi Girardi Keese EJ Global $25 million lawsuit bankruptcy trustee wire fraud settlement trial vacated