{"id":10950,"date":"2026-06-13T11:41:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T11:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/50-cent-ex-girlfriend-lawsuit-faces-hostile-appeals-court-at-hearing\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T11:41:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T11:41:44","slug":"50-cent-ex-girlfriend-lawsuit-faces-hostile-appeals-court-at-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/50-cent-ex-girlfriend-lawsuit-faces-hostile-appeals-court-at-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"50 Cent Ex-Girlfriend Lawsuit Faces Hostile Appeals Court at Hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\t50 Cent\u2019s attorney faced a brutal grilling from New York appeals court judges as he argued that the star deserved to automatically win a lawsuit he filed against an ex-girlfriend over her \u201ctell-all\u201d Instagram posts.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe rapper sued Shaniqua Tompkins last year, claiming her videos violated an agreement she signed in 2007, in which she allegedly sold the star her life rights in perpetuity. Her lawyers fired back in January that she was coerced into signing the deal with threats and intimidation.<\/p>\n

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\n\t50\u2019s lawyers are currently asking a state appeals court to grant him a victory in the case by \u201cdefault,\u201d citing the fact that it took Tompkins months to respond to the case. But at a court hearing Thursday (June 12), that argument got a chilly reception from a panel of five appellate judges, who sharply noted there was \u201cno indication\u201d that Tompkins had ever even seen the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSo counsel, you\u2019re asking for a default judgment for four months\u2019 delay, where it doesn\u2019t even appear that the defendant was served properly. Is that right?\u201d one judge asked 50\u2019s attorney, Josh Reisberg<\/strong> of the firm Blank Rome, before he could even begin his presentation.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough Reisberg responded that he disagreed with that \u201ccharacterization\u201d of the case, the judges then harshly questioned him throughout the hearing, showing an unusual level of skepticism that at times bordered on hostility.<\/p>\n

\n\tReisberg argued that 50 Cent\u2019s process servers had tried multiple addresses for Tompkins that they had pulled from digital databases, but the judges quickly demanded to know what proof he had that they\u2019d tried locations \u201cwhere she actually lived.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cI\u2019m trying to understand: How did you make a [proper] showing other than saying \u2018Oh, these are the addresses\u2019?\u201d one judge asked. \u201cI could say that about anybody. You can\u2019t believe everything that\u2019s on the internet about all our addresses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tReisberg did not immediately return a request for comment from him or his client.<\/p>\n

\n\t50 Cent\u2019s publishing company, G-Unit Books, sued last year after Tompkins, the mother of his child, Marquise Jackson, went viral with a series of Instagram posts commenting on the criminal trial of Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs. The videos touched on the rapper\u2019s infamous 2000 shooting, as well as his long-running feud with Combs.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn taking her to court, 50 Cent\u2019s attorneys said his company had paid Tompkins $80,000 in 2007 in return for \u201call rights to exploit her life story\u201d \u2014 a deal they explicitly say was meant to protect the rapper\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJackson purchased these rights to preserve them for use in future biographical or autobiographical projects, but also in part because he was concerned that Tompkins would attempt to monetize their history and his name,\u201d the rapper\u2019s lawyers wrote at the time. \u201cHis concerns were ultimately proven correct.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tIn January, Tompkins finally responded to the case, saying she had never been properly served with it. If given the chance to fully rebut 50 Cent\u2019s accusations, she said she would be able to easily do so because the contract she signed had clearly been invalid.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe agreement was presented as a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum, and I was given no opportunity to seek independent counsel or negotiate any terms,\u201d Tompkins wrote in an affidavit at the time. \u201cFearing for my life and for my children\u2019s lives, I signed the agreement under extreme duress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut owing to Tompkins\u2019 delayed response, 50 Cent\u2019s lawyers asked the judge for a default judgment, saying she had missed her shot to fight the case with such a response. The judge ultimately denied that request, prompting the rapper\u2019s lawyer to file the appeal to the appellate court.<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing Thursday\u2019s hearing, that appeal appears unlikely to succeed. After suggesting that Reisberg had \u201cessentially\u201d admitted that Tompkins wasn\u2019t properly served, the judges then hammered him on whether his client had suffered any real prejudice \u2014 meaning, whether the delay had caused any problems for 50\u2019s lawsuit. When Reisberg responded that such prejudice exists \u201cin every case in which a defendant fails to appear,\u201d the panel quickly cut him off.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNo. No. That\u2019s not the case,\u201d one judge told him. \u201cSo I\u2019ll just let you know: That\u2019s not the case.\u201d The judges later told Reisberg that public policy favors allowing defendants a chance to defend themselves, a point that he did not refute. \u201cThere\u2019s no prejudice here,\u201d another judge asked him. \u201cWhy not go to trial?\u201d<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
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