Michael Jackson Estate Objects to Paris Jackson’s $1.16 Million Legal Fee Request

By Mockulus Editorial
September 18, 2026

Michael Jackson’s estate and his daughter Paris Jackson are now fighting over how much she should be paid for a legal win she secured earlier this year. Estate co-executor John Branca filed court documents on Monday, September 14, objecting to Paris’s request for $1,165,481.90 in legal fees, arguing the amount is excessive.

The underlying win

The fee dispute traces back to a ruling in Paris’s favor from earlier this year. According to court documents filed May 13, Los Angeles court referee Mitchell L. Beckloff sided with Paris and rejected $625,000 in “bonus” payments that executors Branca and John McClain had authorized in the second half of 2018 for outside law firms representing the estate. Paris had objected to those payments in June 2025, when the executors asked the court to approve attorney compensation for that period, arguing the payments lacked sufficient explanation.

Because her challenge benefited the estate directly, the ruling found Paris was “entitled to an award of reasonable attorneys’ fees”, a principle known as the common fund theory, under which someone who recovers money for a shared fund can seek reimbursement for the legal costs of doing so. Her spokesperson called the ruling a “massive win” for the family at the time.

What Branca is objecting to

Paris’s team subsequently submitted an invoice for $1,165,481.90 in fees. In his objection, Branca argues that figure is unreasonable and goes well beyond the scope of the bonus dispute she actually won. According to his filing, Paris is seeking payment for work tied to broader, unrelated legal battles with the executors, not just the fight over the 2018 bonuses. Branca also contends she is overstating how much she saved the estate, noting that some of the disputed bonus money was returned voluntarily rather than through the litigation itself.

Branca’s position is not that Paris should receive nothing. His filing states the estate is willing to compensate her for the specific dispute she won and the benefit that resulted for the estate’s beneficiaries, but argues the total bill should be reduced to reflect only that work. It will now be up to the court to determine what a “reasonable” fee actually looks like.

Part of a longer-running dispute

This isn’t the first fee fight between Paris and the estate. In November 2025, Paris sued the estate, accusing Branca and McClain of authorizing unexplained bonuses and premium payments to themselves and outside firms, the dispute that ultimately led to the May ruling in her favor. The relationship between Paris and the executors has been contentious for longer than that: in an earlier, separate skirmish, the executors themselves sought roughly $115,000 in fees from Paris after winning an anti-SLAPP motion against a petition she had filed.

Neither side disputes that the underlying $625,000 ruling stands. What’s unresolved is simply how much Paris’s pursuit of that outcome is worth.

Why it matters

The fight is the latest chapter in an ongoing conflict between Paris and the executors over financial transparency at the estate, which has managed Michael Jackson’s finances, catalog and image since his death in 2009. Whatever the court decides on the fee amount will not affect the underlying $625,000 already ordered returned to the estate, that money stays in place regardless of the outcome here. But the size of the fee award could shape how future disputes between the family and the executors play out, and it adds to a broader pattern of legal friction that has surrounded the estate for years.

No hearing date on the fee objection has been reported yet.