Kelly Clarkson wins key rulings ahead of ex-husband retrial

Kelly Clarkson made key decisions at a hearing Wednesday as a judge laid down the ground rules for her summer showdown with ex-husband Brandon Blackstock in their ongoing war over the fees he paid her as her manager.

A Los Angeles County judge said Clarkson and Blackstock will face each other in a trial starting on August 27. The trial will focus solely on whether Blackstock broke the law when it procured deals for Clarkson, such as her review concert on NBC The voice and then paid himself relevant commissions. A California Labor Commissioner first ruled on the dispute last November, largely upholding Clarkson and awarding her $2.6 million. Blackstock appealed the decision last December, setting the stage for a so-called “de novo” trial in state court, meaning a new trial starting from scratch.

In recent court filings, Blackstock's attorneys have requested a broad discovery process that will lead to a retrial. They had hoped to simultaneously investigate the breach-of-contract claims they made against Clarkson in a related lawsuit filed in 2020. It also signaled plans to question Clarkson about her personal finances, including how she and Blackstock financed him their wedding. They said Blackstock hoped to “confirm” that his commissions were used to pay joint wedding expenses and fund a lifestyle that Clarkson “was also able to enjoy”.

A judge struck him down Wednesday, saying the August trial will focus on whether Blackstock collected fees for Clarkson's deals in violation of California's Talent Agencies Act, which prohibits anyone but licensed talent agents from procuring engagements for professional artists. The judge put everything else on hold in the meantime.

“We will claim if there was only a violation of the labor code. Any questions about profits and damages, those will all come later,” Judge Wendy Chang ruled from the bench. Her decision came after Clarkson's attorney, Ed McPherson, argued that if his client prevails in the de novo proceeding in August, Blackstock and the family's management company, Starstruck Entertainment, would be barred from pursuing claims in their lawsuit in 2020 thereafter. -top test.

“If we win everything de novo, they won't even have a trial. They have no right to anything. There would be no management agreement and they don't get commissions,” McPherson argued, noting that Clarkson's deal with Starstruck was an oral agreement that she believes was voided by Blackstock's illegal tactics outlined in the labor committee's ruling last year.

In another ruling in favor of Clarkson on Wednesday, Judge Chang said the de novo trial would put back on the table Clarkson's fees paid to Blackstock for supplying her daytime talk show.

In last year's labor ruling, the labor commissioner found that Blackstock illegally procured deals for Clarkson involving four of the five disputed gigs. The group of four included Clarkson's accords The voice, home goods retailer Wayfair, a cruise line and a music awards show. In a victory for Blackstock, the commissioner found that Blackstock could keep the roughly $750,000 in commissions for The Kelly Clarkson Show which Clarkson wanted to repay.

When Blackstock appealed the $2.6 million award, it only appealed the rulings on the four deals that went wrong, his lawyer said in court Wednesday. His attorney argued that the fees paid for the talk show deal should not be part of the trial de novo. Clarkson's attorney objected. “We have to start from scratch, not just with the things they want, but with everything,” McPherson argued.

“We are litigating the whole thing,” Judge Chang finally ruled. In a split ruling, the judge ordered Blackstock and Starstruck to post nearly $4 million in bail to avoid paying the $2.6 million judgment pending a retrial. Blackstock had suggested opening a joint interest-bearing account with the $2.6 million. Clarkson had requested a maximum bond of twice that amount.

The August trial, meanwhile, is expected to last at least five days and include live testimony from several witnesses who were unavailable for the labor committee's several-day hearing in March 2023. Live testimony was expected from two music agents in Clarkson's talent agency CAA could prove pivotal. According to Blackstock, CAA music agents Rick Roskin and Darryl Eaton were with him The voicestudio on May 9, 2017, minutes before he reportedly spoke with the NBC executive, who first extended the lucrative judgeship offer to Clarkson for which Blackstock collected a commission. Blackstock claims agents asked him to approach the executive branch to negotiate, meaning he was not acting alone in violation of the labor code. According to the records received Rolling rockRoskin and Eaton deny being with Blackstock at The voice union that day.

According to the records received Rolling rockCAA agent Cat Carson testified at a labor committee hearing last year that Roskin and Eaton were not TV agents at CAA and that neither of them asked Blackstock to negotiate anything with NBC or anyone else, and that she was upset when he did it in his own.

Attorneys for both sides had no comment after the hearing. In a previous statement to Rolling rockone of Blackstock's lawyers accused Clarkson of fighting to return the millions in fees.

“It is morally, ethically and legally wrong to try to get money back from your ex-husband, who not only helped her as her manager, but also used those earnings for their children and Kelly's and his lifestyle. Brandon during the wedding,” said Bryan Freedman. represents Blackstock and Starstruck, he said.

Clarkson initially filed for divorce from Blackstock in June 2020. Starstruck then sued her three months later for allegedly breaching their oral management agreement, claiming she was owed unpaid royalties. Clarkson responded to this lawsuit by filing her application with the labor committee in October 2020.

The couple's bitter split came out during the commission's evidentiary hearing last year, when Clarkson testified that she was never approached by NBC to work on the US version of The voice before Blackstock reached out to them. She claimed that Blackstock had informed her that NBC was not interested because she was looking for “a sex symbol type”. Asked how she could remember it so specifically, Clarkson testified, “Well, a wife doesn't forget once she's told she's not a sex symbol, so that sticks.”