Ellen DeGeneres’ Legal Team Requests Delivery of Documents Relating to 2023 Car Accident Be Deemed Invalid

Ellen DeGeneres’ legal team is hitting back in the case related to a lawsuit filed by a woman who is suing the former daytime talk show host over an alleged car accident that occurred in October 2023.

According to court documents that were obtained by People and dated January 21, 2026, attorneys for DeGeneres, 68, have responded after the plaintiff claimed three attempts had been made to deliver legal documents to the star.

DeGeneres’ lawyers responded that the alleged attempts to deliver the documents should be thrown out and declared invalid because the papers appear to have been delivered to a security guard at the business management firm NKSFB, LLC.

Although DeGeneres — who currently resides in the U.K. with wife Portia de Rossi — has had some business dealings there, her lawyers argue it was unreasonable to believe she’d be there “on those two random days in January.”

“There was no verbal interaction with the process server that I am aware of. The process server did not inform anyone of the contents of the documents that I am aware of,” said Harley J. Neuman — who serves on the Board of Directors of the Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund — said in response, according to People. “Nobody signed any acknowledgement of receipt of the documents that I am aware of. Likewise, I am not aware of a copy of the summons and complaint being mailed to my office.”

Because the office that the documents were allegedly dropped off at was not the comedian’s “dwelling house, usual place of abode, or usual place of business,” DeGeneres’ legal team wants the attempts rendered invalid.

DeGeneres is being sued for general negligence following a motor vehicle incident in Santa Barbara County in which she is accused by the plaintiff of causing personal and property damage when she allegedly ran a stop sign. People reported a court date is currently scheduled for April 30, 2026.