Law.com reports that a history of litigation concerning Michael Jackson will carry over to his estate which will face an extended amount of estate litigation and need to deal with extensive disputes and contests as he had dealt during his life.
As this Blog reports the actress / model from the thriller video joined the Litigation party of suing Michael Jackson shortly prior to his passing. She was seeking further compensation for the video as the director had also sued his production company seeking to litigate the amount that he should have received which was a dispute between himself and Michael Jackson.
Money Magazine also reported regarding how much the concert was intended to make and how there was already litigation which may occur from the tour.
Billboard.com referred to Michael Jackson as the king of litigation a play on his nickname of the king of pop and mentioned that some of the ongoing lawsuits that he has will now be handled by his estate who will have to continue to pursue or defend a number of various disputes. Among them include a 75 year old African singer suing despite having already reached a settlement for a portion of a song in 1983 that used borrowed lyrics. He then allowed Rihana to use a song which had that portion of the song so they were both sued in France last February. Given that medications may have played a role in his passing it is also interesting to note that he was once sued for not paying a prescription drug bill which was in excess of $100,000.
He was even sued in late December of 2008 by a woman claiming to be Billie Jean Jackson (although her name is actually Laron Poulis) arguing she was Billie Jean from his 1983 hit Billie Jean not my lover but she in fact was and that they were married and she was the mother of Blanket. This time she sued for $1 billion on behalf of the daughter and joint custody. She had sued him decades previously claiming 3 children of hers were his as well but lost. He is also being sued by concert promoters and according to the Billboard article has been sued by people connected with Wall Street as well as Sotheby's. Given these lawsuits, the custoday issues with the children and debts expected at around $500 million and assets including some Beatles songs worth around a Billion dollars and no will or estate planning documents have been found it will be an interesting and challenging estate to unravel and resolve all of the disputes involved.
