Judge denies settlement, so the Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna lawsuit moves to trial
Blac Chyna and Rob Kardashian are heading back to court after a Los Angeles County judge denied Kardashian’s motion to settle their revenge-porn lawsuit Thursday.
According to a press release from the Los Angeles Superior Court, jury selection for the trial will begin June 20 at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, with Judge Gregory Alarcon presiding. Jury selection is expected to take one day and the trial is expected to last from three to five days.
This trial comes just a month after Chyna lost a defamation trial against the larger Kardashian family in which she accused the family of meddling with her E! reality show and defaming her by trying to get the show canceled.
Kardashian’s legal team had claimed that Chyna would drop the revenge-porn lawsuit if Kardashian could help her avoid a separate ongoing lawsuit brought on by Chyna’s former boyfriend Justin Jones, in which Jones claims Chyna caused emotional distress.
In the motion filed June 6, Kardashian’s team alleged that Kardashian and Chyna “agreed to end nearly five years of litigation and avoid the expense and public spectacle of trial,” according to documents obtained by The Times.
Kardashian’s team noted that after the two teams reached an agreement, “Chyna changed her mind” and because Chyna and her counsel “acted in bad faith,” Kardashian was forced to seek an order enforcing the alleged previous agreement.
In a statement to People magazine Chyna’s lawyer, Lynne Ciani, said that Chyna is “very pleased that the trial judge denied Rob’s motion to ‘enforce’ a settlement that never existed.”
Blac Chyna filed a $100-million lawsuit against the Kardashians in 2017. Now the model and the reality TV stars are facing off in court.
However, Kardashian’s team claimed in the June filing that Ciani and Chyna presented Kardashian with a settlement and on May 23, Ciani “confirmed the parties’ agreement in writing.”
The allegations of revenge porn were initially leveled against Kardashian in 2017 after the reality star posted sexually explicit photos of Chyna on his Instagram and Twitter. These actions led to Chyna getting a temporary restraining order against Kardashian in July 2017. The charges were originally part of a larger lawsuit that Chyna had against the Kardashian family, but in 2020 a judge decided to sever the revenge-porn element from the case.
The Kardashians prevailed in civil court on Monday when a jury decided that they did not interfere with contracts or defame the ‘Rob & Chyna’ co-star in 2016.
“Revenge porn is a very dangerous form of violence predominantly perpetrated against girls and women. Victims of revenge porn typically experience serious anxiety, shame, and helplessness,” Ciani added in her statement to People magazine. “Rob Kardashian has never taken responsibility for his heinous and vengeful act of posting revenge porn against Chyna in July 2017. He was never criminally prosecuted. It is finally time for Rob to be held accountable in a court of law.”
The legal teams of Kardashian and Chyna did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.
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