Alexa Abano '25
A domestic dispute between Erica Herman and Tiger Woods has broken out into the courts of Florida state after they split up in October. Tiger Woods allegedly had his ex-girlfriend locked out of their seaside mansion that they shared on the Treasure Coast.
“Herman is also suing the golfer for $30 million, after she claims she was locked out of their shared home in Florida,” reports CBS News.
In a separate lawsuit, she also wants a non-disclosure agreement she had signed with Mr. Woods to be canceled, and one of Mr. Woods representatives did not have an immediate comment on this.
The lawsuit claiming she was locked out of the house was filed in October, but has only recently emerged.
"Specifically, by trickery, agents of the Defendant convinced the Plaintiff to pack a suitcase for a short vacation and, when she arrived at the airport, they told her she had been locked out of her residence," according to the court documents seen by the BBC.
The two cases are related because Woods’ legal team says that the NDA requires her to resolve her disputes with him confidentiality, not in a public court.
The law generally says that no nondisclosure clause shall be judicially enforceable with respect to a sexual assault or harassment dispute that arose after the NDA was signed.
“The Speak Out Act does not cover all alleged illegal activity – it only covers sexual harassment and assault,” said Evan Starr, a University of Maryland associate professor whose research aided the legislation to USA Today. “By invoking this argument, she is implying something about sexual harassment (or assault) in this relationship.”
Woods’s legal team is trying to enforce the NDA and say the dispute should be resolved in private arbitration. It says Herman is trying to make an end-run around her NDA with Woods by suing the trust and not Woods. This brought the dispinto the publicute court, where she can leverage the publicity Woods seeks to avoid over his personal life.
They are asking the court to have that lawsuit dismissed and have not yet responded in court to the lawsuit over the NDA.
Depending on the rulings of the court, the case could go back into private arbitration or proceed in public court with mounting stakes and more revelations. Woods could decide to avoid all of it and pay Herman to go away quietly.
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