Highlights
- Erika Jayne settled her $25M lawsuit days before the trial was set to begin.
- Settlement terms are sealed; all pending hearings and motions have been wiped.
- Tom Girardi is currently serving 7+ years in federal prison for wire fraud.
Erika Jayne won’t be taking the stand after all.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star settled her $25 million bankruptcy lawsuit, just days before a trial was scheduled to begin. The last-minute deal brings a years-long legal saga tied to the collapse of ex-husband Tom Girardi‘s law empire to a quiet close — at least for now.
At a pretrial conference on May 21, Judge Anne Hwang was informed that “the case has settled.” During the conference, Erika, 54, and the plaintiff informed the judge they had reached a settlement, and the two sides have until Tuesday, May 26, to file a settlement notice and dismissal request.
The financial terms of the deal are being kept under wraps. According to PEOPLE, the settlement terms are still under wraps, but the agreement wipes out all pending hearings and motions, as well as the looming courtroom showdown.
Erika was named in a 2021 lawsuit by the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy case involving her estranged husband, Tom Girardi’s former law firm, Girardi Keese. She had been implicated in the case because she allegedly knew the firm had paid her expenses for at least 12 years.
The plaintiff’s attorney confirmed the resolution directly to the court. “Based on multiple conversations with counsel we have agreed to a settlement,” the plaintiff’s attorney said, according to a court transcript obtained by Us Weekly. “And we’re asking the court to allow us to dismiss without prejudice.”
The trustee accused Jayne of using more than $25 million from the firm for personal expenses through her company EJ Global. Jayne has long denied the allegations and has not been criminally charged in the matter.
Jayne herself had publicly mused about her options at the RHOBH Season 15 reunion just weeks before. “You can file for bankruptcy, or you can fight it out in court,” she said. “You can go to trial, you can cut a deal, you can die in the streets.” Apparently, cutting a deal was the chosen path.
The settlement caps a legal battle that had repeatedly careened toward — and then away from — the courtroom. Just months ago, in December 2025, attorney Ronald Richards had posted on Instagram that “settlement talks have broken down completely between Erika Jayne and the Trustee,” adding that “Erika has little options. Panic sitting in.”
The case was moving toward a jury trial for months, with court records showing multiple scheduling conferences, mediation efforts, and delayed trial dates before the parties ultimately reached a settlement agreement.
Tom Girardi, 87, meanwhile, is no longer a free man. A jury convicted Girardi on four counts of wire fraud. He was sentenced to more than seven years in prison and began serving his sentence in July 2025. He was also ordered to pay $2,310,247 in restitution and a $35,000 fine.
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said at the time of sentencing, “This self-proclaimed ‘champion of justice’ was nothing more than a thief and a liar who conned his vulnerable clients out of the millions of dollars.”
Erika filed for divorce from Tom in 2020 after two decades of marriage. The divorce proceedings were paused after both Tom and Erika were named in a fraud lawsuit. Her attorneys have long maintained that “based on the evidence and law, Erika does not have liability for any of the claims against her,” adding that “all the claims against Erika amount to efforts to blame her for the actions of others, including Girardi Keese and Tom Girardi.”
Erika told Us Weekly in 2024, “I sort of said Tom was the safety net, and I was able to stand out there on the highwire and I felt it was OK because somebody believed in me. Well, when you don’t have that person any longer, you’re looking toward yourself.”
The lawsuit is now resolved, but Jayne is not entirely out of the legal woods. A separate civil case involving a designer’s lawsuit remains an active matter. What is clear is that the RHOBH star managed to avoid what could have been a very damaging, very public trial.
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