A songwriter suing Missy Elliot can’t use her celebrity status as courtroom ammo after a judge ruled her wealth it’s off limits.
Missy Elliott is in the thick of a legal mess in Philly, where her old songwriting buddy Terry Williams is trying to cash in on songs from their 90s girl group days with SISTA—and a judge just told him to leave her bank account out of it.
Williams claims he helped write a bunch of tracks for SISTA’s album 4 All The Sistas Around da World and says he’s owed credit and a cut of the money.
Missy’s not having it and says she wrote those joints solo. The legal back-and-forth has been dragging on for years and now it’s landed in federal court.
But here’s where it gets spicy—last week, Judge Nitza Quiñones Alejandro told Williams he can’t use Missy Elliott’s fame or money to try to beef up his case.
The court said talking about her celebrity status or other music work that’s unrelated to the songs in question could mess with the jury’s judgment and is mostly off-limits.
The judge spelled it out.
“References to Elliott’s wealth, fame, and other works have little to no relevance to this case, and that the probative value of this evidence is outweighed by a danger of unfair prejudice,” Judge Alejandro said.
Williams tried to argue that since Missy talked about her career publicly, her success should factor into the trial. The judge wasn’t buying it and said that still doesn’t make it fair game.
“Williams cannot use Elliott’s wealth to unfairly inflate his compensatory damages claims. References to Elliott’s wealth, fame, and other works are generally inadmissible,” Judge Alejandro ruled.
That said, the judge left a little wiggle room.
If Missy’s background connects directly to the songs they’re fighting about, it might come up—but only if it actually matters to the case.
Whether that makes it into trial is still TBD.
This drama also includes a stash of 34 unreleased tracks that Williams says he worked on. Missy says she wrote them all herself.
Back in August 2024, Missy scored a win when the judge threw out Williams’ lawsuit over Aaliyah’s song “Heartbroken,” saying he waited way too long—22 years—to claim he helped write it.
That part of the case is dead, but the SISTA fight is still going.
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