Smokey Robinson Seeks Another Delay In $1.23 Million Legal Fees Fight

Smokey Robinson and his wife, Frances, want more time before a judge takes up their former employees’ $1.23 million legal-fees request, extending a dispute over the cost of fighting the couple’s defamation claims.

According to City News Service, the Robinsons again asked to pause the fee motion until their appeal ends. A hearing on that request is set for November 12.

The workers opposed another delay in papers dated October 29. Their lawyers said waiting would “defeat the purpose of the statute’s mandatory fee provision.” The workers said this was the third stay request.

The defense argued that “A stay would avoid requiring the parties to incur substantial expense” while the appeal proceeds. The Robinsons also dispute the hours billed and amount sought.

The appeal concerns dismissed portions of a countersuit, not the entire case against the former employees. The Robinsons challenged Judge Kevin C. Brazile’s April 23 decision, filing a notice of appeal May 19 in the Superior Court and seeking review by California’s Second District Court of Appeal.

That ruling involved California’s anti-SLAPP law, which protects certain speech from lawsuits.

Judge Brazile found the challenged press-conference statements concerned a public issue because “they pertain to sexual assault by a legendary musician.”

He also found the Robinsons had not shown actual malice by clear and convincing evidence.

Other claims survived against the workers. Conversion, invasion of privacy and a Penal Code claim remained, while emotional distress and financial elder abuse claims could proceed to the extent they did not rest on defamation.

Four former employees sued on May 6, 2025, accusing the R&B singer of sexual abuse and labor violations. Two more plaintiffs joined in November 2025. Frances is also a defendant in the underlying lawsuit and a plaintiff in the countersuit.

By May, an October 11, 2027, trial date had been set.

The former employees’ lawsuit sought $50 million when it was filed. The Robinsons have denied the accusations.

After the April ruling, attorney Christopher Frost told PEOPLE that they “believe the Court’s ruling is incorrect in the claims it did dismiss.”

Judge Brazile had already declined in October to wait for the entire appeal. He moved the fees hearing to January 12. The workers want to keep that date.