Paris Jackson Wins Court Ruling Against Michael Jackson Estate Executors Over $625,000 Bonus Payments

Paris Jackson has scored a significant legal win in her long-running fight with the executors of Michael Jackson’s estate, after a Los Angeles judge found that $625,000 in bonus payments to outside law firms had not been properly justified.

The ruling, issued last month, sided with Paris in her dispute with executors John Branca and John McClain over the estate’s finances. Judge Mitchell Beckloff said the payments, made in 2018 to three law firms, should be “returned to the estate” after concluding the explanation for the bonuses fell short of what was needed for such a large sum.

Paris Jackson attends Universal Music Group’s GRAMMY after party at Nya Studios on February 01, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.
Michael Tullberg/Getty Images

Branca and McClain had argued that the bonuses were justified as compensation for “extraordinary success” and said they were meant to “incentivize hard work” from lawyers. Beckloff was not persuaded by that framing. “On the evidence presented, the bonus amounts paid appear arbitrary — what Mr. Branca determined was appropriate,” he wrote in the ruling, obtained by Billboard.

The judge did, however, offer an emphatic defense of the executors’ broader stewardship of the estate. He said Branca and McClain had “provided exceptional services” to Jackson’s heirs and noted that the business had been turned around under their watch. “There can be no dispute that under the expertise of the executors, this estate has transformed from teetering on the brink of bankruptcy … to the financial powerhouse that it is today,” Beckloff wrote.

What he objected to was the specific bonus structure tied to Greenberg Traurig, Saul Ewing, and Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir, especially since those firms had already been paid through regular legal billing. “Ms. Jackson’s objection to the $625,000 of bonus payments made in the second six months of 2018 is sustained,” the judge said. “The bonus payments are not approved; they are disallowed.” He also ruled that any future bonus payments of that kind would require either a court order or written consent from all estate beneficiaries.

In a statement to Billboard on Wednesday (May 13), the executors leaned on the portions of the ruling that praised their management, saying the judge “did not in any way say that the executors had made any inappropriate payments to themselves.” They added, “Ultimately, while we disagree with the decision, we fully respect it and plan to move forward accordingly.”

Paris’s side described the ruling as a “massive win” for the Jackson family, saying it would finally open the door to “transparency and accountability measures Paris has fought for.” Her spokesperson went further, casting the estate as something that should serve the family rather than the people running it. “The Jackson Estate is supposed to be a prudent, fiscally responsible entity that supports the Jackson family — not a slush fund to help John Branca live out his Hollywood mogul fantasies,” the statement said. “After months of engaging in sexist, scorched-earth tactics against a beneficiary, it’s time for John Branca to acknowledge his many missteps and act in the best interest of the family he has a fiduciary duty to protect.”

This latest ruling lands after months of friction between Paris and the executors. In November, she accused them of using their work, including the now-released Michael biopic, to “enrich and aggrandize” themselves rather than help the family, pointing in part to Miles Teller being cast to play Branca in the film. The executors answered months later by calling her objections “a profound waste of the court’s time and, ironically, the estate’s money,” while emphasizing their track record of generating revenue for the estate, even before Michael became a box office hit.