Michael Jackson's companies face abuse suits from Wade Robson and James Safechuck, revived on appeal in 2023 and set for trial in 2028

Wade Robson testified for Michael Jackson at his 2005 child molestation trial, at which a California jury acquitted Jackson. After Jackson's death on 25 June 2009, Robson sued in 2013 and James Safechuck in 2014. The suits name MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures, companies Jackson owned when he died. Robson alleges that Jackson abused him from age 7 to 14; Safechuck alleges abuse over 4 years starting around the end of 1988, when he was 10. Both allege that company employees helped coordinate visits and ensured Jackson could be alone with them. Jackson denied all child abuse allegations during his lifetime. The suits were dismissed in 2017 as too late. A 2020 California law extended the time limit for people abused as children, and the cases were revived, but a Los Angeles judge dismissed them again in 2020 and 2021, ruling that the companies had "no legal ability" to control Jackson, their sole owner. On 18 August 2023 a 3-judge panel of California's Second District Court of Appeal reversed, writing that such a company is "not excused from an affirmative duty to protect those children". The estate's lawyer Jonathan Steinsapir said Jackson is innocent and the claims are "contrary to all credible evidence". In 2024 the 2 cases were combined. When Paris Jackson petitioned to stop the executors paying estate lawyers, the executors replied in a 15 September 2025 filing that the estate would likely have to default in this case, where the plaintiffs seek $400 million. The estate told People: "The lawsuit has no merit and Michael is innocent." The trial, once set for November 2026 and then October 2027, was reset in June 2026. Status: allegations, denied by the estate; no trial held; trial set for 14 February 2028 in Los Angeles County Superior Court before Judge Michael E. Whitaker (June 2026 reporting).