Tom Girardi, the estranged husband of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Girardi, is having major health issues amid his legal trouble, according to his brother, Robert Girardi.
According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly on Friday, January 15, the 81-year-old lawyer suffers from short-term memory loss. Robert also claims that Tom needs a conservatorship and requests that he gains control of his brother’s finances and will help the bankruptcy court gain access to his records amid the involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy case.
“[Tom] is incapable of realizing and understanding the repercussions of the bankruptcy filings pending against him and the Debtor,” the docs state. “Furthermore, the TG is not capable of making rational decisions with respect to his or the Debtor’s financial responsibilities.”
In November 2020, Erika filed for divorce from Tom last month after more than two decades of marriage. She then accused the 81-lawyer of having an affair with a California judge in a now-deleted Instagram post.
“This is Justice Tricia A. Bigelow. She was f–king my husband Tom Girardi and he was paying her Saks bill and paying for her plastic surgery,” Erika wrote alongside a series of alleged text messages between her estranged husband and Bigelow.
After Erika deleted the post, Bigelow’s attorney released a statement to the Los Angeles Times on December 22, saying Erika’s “actions in maliciously doxxing the Justice were nothing short of criminal. We are considering our options to protect Justice Bigelow from further harassment.”
During another hearing last month, Keith Griffin, an attorney at Tom’s firm, revealed that the estranged husband of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star was secretly hospitalized in 2020. Griffin said his boss was “unavailable in recent weeks due to a serious illness that caused him to be hospitalized for which he sought treatment.”
Tom previously failed to hire a lawyer to represent him in the case. One of his recently hired attorneys, Evan Jenness, told the judge during a December 14 hearing that he wanted Tom to go through a mental examination. “I’m unsure that he understands either the nature or the gravity of the current situation,” Jenness told the judge.
Tom is currently under fire as he is facing multiple lawsuits, including a class-action case filed by Edelson PC against both him and Erika. According to court documents obtained by the publication, the spouses have been accused of embezzling settlement money for families of the victims of Lion Air Flight 610, a 2018 crash that killed 189 people.
A judge has subsequently frozen Tom’s assets and Erika has been asked to stop selling her used clothes through the French company Vestiaire.
“There’s an asset freeze,” the judge told Erika’s lawyer in court on December 22. “His assets are frozen. I think you need to convey that to your client. … If she is selling assets that are property of Tom Girardi, you need to inform her of the danger that puts her in [of being in contempt in court].”
Erika’s attorney, Matt Wasserman, went on to question her role in the case. “Erika was completely unaware of the very serious allegations that were being made against Tom in court. Tom always handled all of the finances and that was how they handled things,” one source said. “She is just reeling from all of this but, make no mistake, Erika is a tough cookie and she isn’t stupid. She will get through this.”
Photo Credit: Matt Baron/Shutterstock
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