Diddy scored a clear win in court after a judge agreed he can serve Courtney Burgess through newspapers because he says the man keeps ducking his $100 million lawsuit.
The judge said Diddy tried every normal method for months with no success, so it was time to move the process along.
This fight stems from Diddy’s lawsuit, which accuses Burgess, attorney Ariel Mitchell, and Nexstar Media of airing a story he claims never occurred.
Burgess claimed that he had 11 flash drives from the late Kim Porter, which he said contained videos of celebrities participating in “Freakoffs” involving minors.
Burgess went on TV with the claim that Diddy calls false, saying the broadcast ruined his reputation, hurt his finances, and created a wave of damage he is still dealing with.
“In this pitiful spectacle, all pretense of objectivity has been abandoned, as a global audience feasts at the all-you-can-eat buffet of wild lies and conspiracy theories. Mitchell and Burgess are among the worst perpetrators in this offensive scenario,” Diddy’s lawyers fumed in their lawsuit.
His countersuit says Burgess pushed the story for attention and did not care about the fallout.
The case froze when Diddy could not serve Burgess. His team spent months hunting him down. Process servers went to addresses in Florence, South Carolina, West Orange, New Jersey and Catonsville, Maryland.
They knocked on doors and met new residents with no link to him. They mailed packets to a P.O. box tied to him. They sent emails to five accounts flagged by investigators.
They called a number that a neighbor said was his. One process server spoke to a man he believed was Burgess, who said he needed to “talk to his lawyer,” then vanished and was never picked up again.
Every attempt hit a wall.
That record convinced the judge that Burgess was either avoiding service or was too difficult to locate through normal means. The judge said Diddy had done more than enough and needed a way to move the case forward.
The judge approved a wide plan.
Diddy can serve Burgess by certified mail at two known homes and a P.O. box. He can email the five accounts linked to him. He can send a text message to the number investigators believe he uses.
And he can publish legal notices in the Maryland Daily Record, The Star-Ledger and The Morning News. Those papers cover the regions tied to Burgess’s possible locations.
The judge said these methods give the best chance of reaching him and keeping the lawsuit alive. Diddy now has until January 16, 2026, to complete the service and advance the case to the next stage.
Diddy was convicted in July 2025 of two counts of transportation for the purposes of prostitution and in October 2025, was sentenced to 50 months in federal prison.
He is serving his sentence at FCI Fort Dix, a federal low-security prison in New Jersey.
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