A woman is suing Ellen DeGeneres over a car accident and has requested a jury trial in her negligence case.
The plaintiff alleges that on October 16, 2023, DeGeneres ran a stop sign in Santa Barbara County and “boned” her vehicle. The collision caused “multiple serious personal injuries and damage.”
The lawsuit, filed in September 2025, will now go to a jury trial, confirmed in a December 15 court filing, despite originally being set as a non-jury trial. The filing also noted that the mediation took place on December 9.
DeGeneres has not yet been served because she lives in Britain, and the court will use the Hague Convention to send the complaint internationally.
The complaint alleges that the plaintiff had stopped at the stop sign and checked for other cars before DeGeneres’ vehicle struck hers.
The filing alleges that DeGeneres “entered the intersection without stopping” and acted negligently, failing to meet the standard “of a reasonable person,” which contributed to the crash.
The plaintiff also claims the collision caused significant income and business losses, emotional distress, anxiety and a “loss of enjoyment of life.”
DeGeneres, who moved to the Cotswolds with her wife, Portia de Rossi, in the fall of 2024, sold her home in California and recently moved to a larger property in Britain to house De Rossi’s horses.
