Thomas Girardi‘s brother, Robert Girardi, has requested he be named as the 81-year-old attorney’s guardian.
In a petition on Wednesday, Robert told a bankruptcy judge that Thomas, who is in the midst of a divorce from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne, as well as several lawsuits, “is incompetent and unable to act for himself” after he failed to meet a deadline in the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings against him.
On January 13, the Los Angeles Times revealed Robert, a Seal Beach dentist, told the judge that Thomas does not understand the seriousness of the situation he is currently in.
As RHOBH fans well know, Thomas, who was made famous by the film Erin Brockovich, is accused of embezzling millions of dollars from clients and failing to pay a number of his creditors, including a court reporter company, who did work for his seemingly collapsed law firm, Girardi Keese.
In his sworn declaration on Wednesday, Robert said Thomas is suffering from short-term memory loss and revealed that his attempts to discuss Thomas’ response to his bankruptcy case were unsuccessful.
“My brother is incapable of realizing and understanding the repercussions of the bankruptcy filings pending against him and his law firm Girardi Keese notwithstanding having [it] explained to him over and over and by various people,” Robert said. “Furthermore, my brother is not capable of making rational decisions with respect to his financial responsibilities and offers solutions and opinions that are factually impossible.”
In December, numerous creditors of Thomas forced him and his firm into involuntary bankruptcy. Then, on Tuesday, Thomas failed to file his expected response to the proceedings.
One day later, Robert explained why Thomas failed to meet the deadline and begged a judge to give him more time to put together his response.
Robert also told the judge that he would be filing a separate request to be named as Thomas’ guardian in Los Angeles Superior Court, which could take a few weeks.
Thomas’ defense lawyer, Evan Jenness, also put a spotlight on Thomas’ apparent mental challenges, telling a judge in Chicago in December that Thomas “has had issues of his mental competence” and had not been able to explain where the $2 million meant for families of plane crash victims went.
After Thomas was forced into bankruptcy, a pair of trustees were put in control of his assets and the assets of his firm.
Moving forward, the interim trustee of Girardi Keese, Elissa Miller, hopes to connect the firm’s thousands of clients with new attorneys in hopes that the remaining assets of the firm will remain protected.
During one recent visit to Thomas’ firm, Elissa said Thomas was located in the office with boxes of documents, likely from “active cases that need representation,” but appeared to be detached.
“I don’t think he really has a handle on the day to day of these cases. He seemed a bit confused,” she explained.
This article is auto-generated by Algorithm Source: realityblurb.com
