Jacko’s Sordid Trials

Michael Jackson’s legal woes are far from over, with another court case scheduled versus promoter Marcel Avram as well as a law firm seeking unpaid legal fees.

Avram originally took Jackson to court in 2002 for backing out of two concerts planned to celebrate the millennium on New Year’s Eve 1999. Jurors found Jackson at fault and that he owed Avram $21 million for breach of contract. Jackson settled for a reported $7 million.

The parties agreed that existing and future settlement disputes would be resolved in Superior Court, but Avram filed for an arbitration hearing.

Jacko’s suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court October 3rd and scheduled to be heard August 8th, seeks injunctions to prevent Avram from proceeding and to prevent any alternative forms of dispute resolution.

Neither Avram nor Jackson are expected to testify at the hearing.

Meanwhile, Jackson is getting sued by the law firm Ayscough & Marar. Brent Ayscough claims he is owed nearly $217,000 for services rendered last year during Jackson’s child molestation trial. Ayscough’s duties included sealing civil cases from the press while the criminal case was pending, including the records of the Avram case and seven others, according to the lawsuit.

The court papers also list fees Jackson allegedly owes other attorneys in the amounts of $400,000, $1 million and $1.25 million. Jackson also allegedly owes Fortress Investment Group $325 million and his brother Randy Jackson $1.65 million. Randy’s assistant is owed an alleged $40,000 and Jacko’s former wife Deborah Rowe Jackson is claiming $900,000 a year for five years plus damages and legal fees.

The lawsuit also says Jackson is being sued for $64 million in the case of Dieter Wiesner v. Michael Jackson.

Meanwhile, for the second time in a year, a law firm has stopped representing Jackson because of nonpayment. Jackson is involved in a case with Prescient Acquisition Group, which claims it helped Jacko refinance $272.5 million in debt owed to the Bank of America and arranged another $537.5 million in financing related to his ownership interest in The Beatles song library.

Attorneys for Wachtel & Masyr have been given permission to leave the case because the firm claims Jackson owes $48 million. In a letter to the federal judge, attorney William Wachtel said he dealt with Jacko through one intermediary after another only to be informed repeatedly that they were quitting or had been fired.

Jackson dropped out of contact with the firm shortly after a face-to-face meeting with the firm where he promised to be in better touch, according to the letter. The pop star said in a letter dated July 17th that he had fired Wachtel.

New York attorney L. Londell Macmillan is planning to take over the case. Jackson recently fired his business managers and replaced them with Macmillan’s firm.