With plaintiffs lawyer Tom Girardi and his law firm both forced into insolvency proceedings, arguments over Girardi's mental competency are moving to center stage, Reuters reported. But even if a judge finds that Girardi requires a guardian ad litem, it won't serve to keep his creditors at bay, experts said. "It really doesn't affect the debts, it doesn't affect the liabilities. What it affects is the procedure under which you would go about attempting to figure out what debts are what," said Bruce Markell, a bankruptcy professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and a former Nevada bankruptcy judge. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Barry Russell in Los Angeles is slated to hear arguments on Feb. 16 over whether Girardi's brother, Robert Girardi, should be appointed guardian of both Girardi and his firm, Girardi Keese. Robert Girardi said in a January court filing that his brother is incapable of understanding the bankruptcy proceedings. Tom Girardi suffers from short-term memory loss and is unable to have "a reasoned conversation" about the issues at stake, the filing said.
The guardianship bid has drawn opposition from Elissa Miller, the chapter 7 trustee for Girardi Keese, and from Edelson PC, whose allegations that Tom Girardi misappropriated $2 million in client settlement funds helped spark the bankruptcies.
