Erika Jayne settled a $25 million lawsuit that had been filed against her five years earlier, court records in the United States Central District of California show, and the judge vacated all pending motions and hearing dates related to the case.
At a Thursday, May 21, pretrial conference the parties told the court they had reached a settlement days before trial was scheduled to begin. The erika girardi lawsuit settlement itself was not disclosed in the filings; the two sides were given until Tuesday, May 26, to file a settlement notice and a dismissal request. "Based on multiple conversations with counsel we have agreed to a settlement," the trustee’s attorney told the judge, and added: "And we're asking the court to allow us to dismiss without prejudice."
The suit grew out of the 2020 involuntary bankruptcy of Girardi Keese and a trustee’s 2021 complaint accusing Jayne of using more than $25 million from the firm for personal expenses. The trustee’s court filing argued "The law firm paid out over $25 million in expenses which were approved and generated by one person, Erika Girardi," and sought repayment of the $25 million sent plus interest. Jayne has denied the allegations and has not been criminally charged.
The collision of personal and legal drama in the case is sharp: Jayne filed for divorce from Tom Girardi in 2020 after two decades of marriage, and Tom Girardi was later convicted by a jury on four counts of wire fraud and sentenced to more than seven years in prison. The trustee’s civil action tied directly to the collapse of the law firm and the bankruptcy proceedings that followed.
Tension in the record centered on what Jayne knew about the payments. The trustee alleged she was aware that the law firm had paid her expenses for at least 12 years; Jayne has repeatedly rejected that narrative in public remarks about her marriage and career. "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," she has said. "You have to turn inward and you have to become your own safety net. … You have to really want to move on. You have to really want and stick it out. You got to stick it out because it’s uncomfortable."
Outside the bankruptcy courtroom, prosecutors and commentators have not been silent. In court filings tied to Mr. Girardi’s criminal case, a prosecutor wrote that "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," underscoring how the civil settlement sits amid a broader web of allegations and convictions.
The immediate legal effect of the settlement is clear: the Central District’s docket shows the case’s pending hearings and motions were vacated, and the parties moved to finalize the resolution by the May 26 deadline. The settlement closes the five-year civil dispute in court for now, with the dollar terms undisclosed — and the trustee’s request to dismiss without prejudice leaves open the possibility, at least in form, of future civil steps.
