A songwriter suing Missy Elliot can’t use her superstar standing as courtroom ammo after a choose dominated her wealth it’s off limits.

Missy Elliott is within the thick of a authorized mess in Philly, the place her outdated songwriting buddy Terry Williams is attempting to money in on songs from their 90s lady group days with SISTA—and a choose simply instructed him to go away her checking account out of it.

Williams claims he helped write a bunch of tracks for SISTA’s album 4 All The Sistas Around da World and says he’s owed credit score and a lower of the cash.

Missy’s not having it and says she wrote these joints solo. The authorized back-and-forth has been dragging on for years and now it’s landed in federal court docket.

But right here’s the place it will get spicy—final week, Judge Nitza Quiñones Alejandro instructed Williams he can’t use Missy Elliott’s fame or cash to attempt to beef up his case.

The court docket mentioned speaking about her superstar standing or different music work that’s unrelated to the songs in query may mess with the jury’s judgment and is usually off-limits.

The choose spelled it out.

“References to Elliott’s wealth, fame, and other works have little to no relevance to this case, and that the probative value of this evidence is outweighed by a danger of unfair prejudice,” Judge Alejandro mentioned.

Williams tried to argue that since Missy talked about her profession publicly, her success ought to issue into the trial. The choose wasn’t shopping for it and mentioned that also doesn’t make it truthful recreation.

“Williams cannot use Elliott’s wealth to unfairly inflate his compensatory damages claims. References to Elliott’s wealth, fame, and other works are generally inadmissible,” Judge Alejandro dominated.

That mentioned, the choose left a bit of wiggle room.

If Missy’s background connects on to the songs they’re combating about, it would come up—however provided that it truly issues to the case.

Whether that makes it into trial remains to be TBD.

This drama additionally features a stash of 34 unreleased tracks that Williams says he labored on. Missy says she wrote all of them herself.

Back in August 2024, Missy scored a win when the judge threw out Williams’ lawsuit over Aaliyah’s song “Heartbroken,” saying he waited manner too lengthy—22 years—to assert he helped write it.

That a part of the case is useless, however the SISTA combat remains to be going.

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