Nicki Minaj was granted a 45-day extension to seek out new authorized counsel after her attorneys unexpectedly withdrew, derailing her response.

Nicki Minaj narrowly dodged a default judgment in a $10 million federal defamation lawsuit after a decide pressed pause on the case, giving her 45 days to rent new attorneys following the abrupt withdrawal of her authorized workforce.

Nicki Minaj and her firm, Pink Personality, gained a short lived reprieve after they missed a court docket deadline in a lawsuit filed by Tameer Peak. The delay adopted her earlier legal professionals’ exit from the case with out discover, leaving her unrepresented and susceptible to a default judgment.

Peak filed suit in September against Minaj, Pink Personality and Pedro Velazquez, alleging they orchestrated “a campaign of malicious false statements and harassment directed at Plaintiff.”

Minaj was served on September 30 and had till October 21 to reply, however no filings have been made. On October 24, the court docket clerk entered a default towards Minaj, setting the stage for a doable judgment with out trial.

But on November 3, Minaj’s in-house counsel stepped in, asking the court docket for a 45-day pause, explaining that the earlier lawyer “abruptly withdrew entirely from his representation of Defendants, without giving any prior notice.”

The lawyer additionally mentioned he solely turned conscious of the lawsuit on October 30, the identical day the unique lawyer pulled out. Peak challenged the request, claiming Nicki Minaj had enough time to reply and accusing her former lawyer, Judd Burstein, of sending an electronic mail with “adverse consequences” if Peak didn’t drop the case.

However, Judge Broderick mentioned Peak didn’t make clear the character of these threats and dominated that the state of affairs didn’t quantity to a willful default. The decide famous Nicki Minaj’s swift motion after the default was entered.

He concluded that Minaj had proven “good cause” for the missed deadline, although she hadn’t but offered an entire protection to the defamation allegations.

Nicki Minaj now has till December 28 to safe new authorized illustration and should replace the court docket on her progress by December 13. The rap star is also at risk of losing her $20 million in a separate legal battle she is accused of ignoring.

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