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By Joal RyanTue Nov 1,10:37 AM ET Michael Jackson may be in Bahrain, but he'll always have Department 42.
The Los Angeles courtroom is where one of Jackson's myriad ongoing lawsuits was settled last week. According to legal experts, the pop singer's gift for litigation, both as a defendant and a plaintiff, will not be thwarted by his move to the Middle East.
"You can't stop a lawsuit just by moving away," said Jean Rosenbluth, a University of Southern California law professor.
Not only that, but you can start a lawsuit even if your new address is on the other side of the globe. "If he's that far away, maybe he'll lose interest [in initiating litigation]," Rosenbluth said. "But I've got to believe he's got attorneys working on them anyway."
That he does.
Last week in Santa Monica, Jackson's attorneys brought a countersuit on their client's behalf against a former business partner. Frederic Marc Schaffel, whose name regularly was invoked during the pop star's molestation and conspiracy trial (he was an unindicted coconspirator), previously sued Jackson for breach of contract.
The Schaffel case is one of several major court battles involving the perennially embattled entertainer. The others include: A sexual harassment lawsuit brought by a New Orleans man; a lawsuit brought by Jackson against the ex-manager, Marcel Avram, who successfully sued Jackson for backing out of two Millennium's Eve concerts; and a breach-of-contract lawsuit brought by the company that helped Jackson refinance a monster-sized bank loan.
Off the books is a lawsuit by a L.A. area antique store that sued Jackson for allegedly not paying in full for more than $375,000 in decorative doodads, including a pair of candelabras. That was the lawsuit resolved last week in Department 42.
Despite current evidence to the contrary, longtime Jackson family attorney Brian Oxman expects more of the latter (i.e., settlements), and less of the former (i.e., lawsuits, lawsuits, lawsuits) from the Bahranian-based Jackson.
"They are rapidly being settled," Oxman said of the various active cases. "I would say it's getting back to business and taking care of business [for Jackson]."
Also getting back to business: The New Orleans federal courthouse where Joseph Thomas Bartucci Jr., sued Jackson for allegedly abusing him back in 1984 when the defendant was 18. Closed since the city was flooded by Hurricane Katrina in late August, the court is to reopen Tuesday.
"The [Jackson] case will get back on the regular track," said Charles F. Gay Jr., the singer's attorney in the harassment lawsuit.
The case first got off track in July when Jackson failed to send either himself or a lawyer to a hearing. The transgression earned the pop star a $10,000 fine from the offended judge.
The punishment should be a lesson to Jackson, who likely won't find takers for the but-I'm-in-Bahrain excuse should he be called to appear or testify in an ongoing case.
"Anyone who's a litigant [is] subject to the process of the court. So, he'll have to comply, of course." Gay said of Jackson. "There's no reason to believe that he won't."
Indeed, even though Jackson had more than one close call abiding by the judge's strict attendance policy during his molestation trial, the entertainer, whether in pajamas or no, managed to sit through all 66 days of the proceedings.
Of late, the only thing Jackson has asked to skip is jury duty--he recently was called to serve in Santa Barbara County, California, where his molestation trial was held and where his famed Neverland Ranch is located. Jackson's camp asked for the singer to be excused on account of he no longer considered himself a local resident. Bahrain, where he arrived shortly after his June 13 acquittal, was his new home, it was said.
Asked whether Jackson was a Bahranian for good now, Oxman said: "There is no such thing as 'for good' in Michael Jackson's life. He is there until he decides otherwise."
Or until a court date comes calling.