Tiger Woods' Ex Erica Herman Takes Further Legal Action Against Him

Erica Herman, the ex-girlfriend of Tiger Woods, has filed a 53-page brief in a Florida state appeals court in an effort to revive her lawsuit against the golf superstar after a judge threw out the case in May, according to USA Today. Herman's attorney submitted the document and argued that the trial court erred when it decided to push the dispute into private arbitration and out of public court. 

Herman claims that the court wrongly ordered the dispute into private arbitration since she was subject to sexual harassment from Woods. "Congress recently passed the Ending Forced Arbitration Of Sexual Assault And Sexual Harassment Act of 2021, precisely to prevent a plaintiff like Ms. Herman from being forced into arbitration by a former boss and sexual partner related to her employment and sexual relationship," said the brief from the attorney, Benjamin Hodas.

In May, a judge in Florida ruled that Herman must abide by the nondisclosure agreement she signed and resolve the lawsuit in private. Herman and her attorney questioned whether she ever signed the NDA, and Herman then dropped a separate lawsuit in July, in which she sought $30 million in damages from Woods' estate. She claimed that Woods "deployed a scheme of trickery" to remove her from his home and end the relationship. The new brief was officially filed on Sept. 11. 

"Neither party behaved as if the purported agreement (from 2017) governed anything they did," Herman's new brief states. "In particular, in October 2022, a dispute arose between Mr. Woods and Ms. Herman, about whether she would be permitted to continue living in the house and whether their relationship would continue. Mr. Woods did not take the dispute to arbitration. Instead, he deployed a scheme of trickery and threats to eject Ms. Herman from the house, take her personal property and pets, and break up with her."  

Herman and Woods began a romantic relationship in 2015, and Herman moved into Woods' home in 2016, according to her. However, Woods said the relationship began in 2017 and Herman moved in with him in August of that year. Herman worked at Woods' restaurant in Florida in 2014. Woods has denied the accusations against him,  calling Herman a "jilted ex-girlfriend who wants to publicly litigate specious claims in court, rather than honor her commitment to arbitrate disputes in a confidential arbitration proceeding."