Oct. 9 2023, Published 11:10 a.m. ET
Janet Jackson was hit with legal paperwork demanding she respond in court to accusations she refused to pay a 6-figure sum owed to her former business managers, RadarOnline.com has learned.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, the debt collection company Creditors Adjustment Bureau has informed the court the entertainer was served on August 2 in the United Kingdom.
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The company had been struggling to track down Jackson for months. As we first reported, the Creditors Adjustment Bureau sued Jackson and several of her companies in January.
The companies listed as defendants were Jackson’s Black Doll Inc., Juggernaut Productions, Rhythm Nation, JDJ Entertainment, and Queendom Inc.
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In the lawsuit, Creditors Adjustment Bureau claimed Jackson failed to pay the business management firm Nigro Karlin Segal Feldstein & Bolno a total of $238,593.88.
The debt was then assigned to the Creditors Adjustment Bureau which filed the lawsuit to collect.
Creditors Adjustment Bureau said the amount was due on February 24, 2021, but no payment was made. The company demanded Jackson pay the $238k balance plus 10% interest.
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Jackson’s companies denied all allegations of wrongdoing. The collection company accused Jackson of failing to respond personally but her lawyer argued she had yet to be served — despite her companies being served.
Her lawyer, Ronald Richards, told the court, “She is a recording artist who resides in London, UK.” He said Jackson had been living overseas on a work permit since March 2021.
“Her usual place of business is in London, UK where she resides,” the filing said.
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Jackson submitted her own declaration telling the court, “I am a singer-songwriter. I work in London, UK where I write my music and practice for various musical works. My usual place of business is in London, UK where I reside. I am raising a minor child in the UK and live with my child there.”
Now, the Creditors Adjustment Bureau said Jackson has been served and the case should move forward. The pop star demanded additional time to respond which the company objected to.
The company said Jackson had more than sufficient time to file and serve her response.
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Creditors Adjustment Bureau said Jackson’s lawyer claimed the “high holidays” precluded him from locating an attorney in the United Kingdom to give him timely “legal advice on the efficacy of” the service on Jackson.
The company said this claim is “not only unsupported, but completely and utterly unbelievable.
“Query: Janet Jackson’s counsel was unable to find any non-Jewish attorney in the entire United Kingdom to provide the requested advice as to her service? In Israel, maybe. In the United Kingdom, highly unlikely,” the lawyer representing the Creditors Adjustment Bureau wrote.
Further, the company said “glaringly absent” from Jackson’s motion was any declaration from the singer herself.
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Despite the argument, the court sided with Jackson and granted her additional time to file her official response to the lawsuit.
As we previously reported, Jackson’s lawyer previously told RadarOnline.com, “We have been working with a distant former manager who referred a bill to collections that was resolved years ago due some errors that were made with Mr. Jackson’s account. If the case was assigned for collections and they are suing as the assignee, they will be in for a big surprise as the claim is past the statute of limitations and was resolved years ago before the firm was bought out.”