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Ellen DeGeneres’ lawyers are firing back after a woman said she was suing the host over a car crash she claims happened in October 2023.
Court documents obtained by PEOPLE and dated January 21, 2026, filed in California’s Los Angeles County Superior Court state that DeGeneres’ lawyers are filing a motion to quash the subpoena after the plaintiffs say they tried to serve legal documents on her three times on January 5, 6, and 7 of this year.
However, DeGeneres’ attorneys argue that the service of process should be declared null and void because the attempt to serve documents on the host was made through the management company, NKSFB, LLC.
The document acknowledges that on December 23, 2025, “certain documents were dropped off at the reception desk of Neuman + Associates, a division of NKSFB.”
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A statement from Harley J. Newman, a partner and founder of Newman & Associates, said that “Newman & Associates is not Ms. DeGeneres’ residence, her usual residence, or her usual place of employment,” and that although DeGeneres claimed she was “not at Newman + Associates at the time of the drop-off,” she said she was.
“To my knowledge, there was no verbal communication with the process server. The process server did not inform anyone of the contents of the documents that I knew of. No one, to my knowledge, signed an acknowledgment of receipt of the documents. Similarly, I am not aware that a copy of the summons and complaint were mailed to my office,” Newman claimed in the newspaper about his firing on December 23 of last year.
“There was no reason to believe that Ms. DeGeneres would be there, especially not on two random days in January,” the document said of an attempt to deliver the documents earlier this year.
“I have a business relationship with Ms. DeGeneres through Newman & Associates and am generally familiar with Ms. DeGeneres’ business operations and personal life,” Newman, who is on the board of the Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Foundation, according to the NKSFB website, said in the newspaper.
The document also added, “It should be obvious to everyone, especially the process server, that a security guard in a 20-story building is not ‘in charge’ of the business on the fifth floor of that building.”
“And since NKSFB, LLC is neither Ms. DeGeneres’ home nor her business, it is highly unlikely that the security guard at the building would have a relationship that would ensure that Ms. DeGeneres receives the complaint documents,” the papers state.
The plaintiffs are suing DeGeneres for general negligence following an October 16, 2023, car accident in Santa Barbara County. She said the alleged accident resulted in both property damage and personal injury, according to the documents.
The woman alleged that DeGeneres entered the intersection without stopping at a stop sign and struck the plaintiff’s Tesla.
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According to documents filed by the plaintiffs, the plaintiffs claim they have suffered lost wages, loss of use of property, hospital and medical bills, general damages, property damage, loss of earning capacity and enjoyment of life, and emotional distress and anxiety.
According to the document dated September 12, 2025, the woman is seeking unspecified damages. The trial date is scheduled for April 30th of this year.
A representative for DeGeneres did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
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This update comes after PEOPLE reported last month that the woman suing DeGeneres, claiming the host “boned” her car in a 2023 crash, has requested a jury trial in connection with the incident.
DeGeneres, who now lives in rural England after selling her California home with wife Portia de Rossi and moving abroad in the fall of 2024, said her main motivation was a desire to avoid President Donald Trump’s term in office.
The couple has since sold the British farmhouse they bought for $30 million in July and moved to a larger property where they can house De Rossi’s horses, his wife told The Wall Street Journal.
In an Instagram post in August, DeGeneres said her wife was “living the dream” in her new hood. She shared a video featuring the actress and her animals, writing: “I love riding horses through the English countryside to villages.”
