June 11 (Reuters) - Madonna and ticketing giant Live

Nation told a U.S. judge on Monday that they were

nowhere near settling a proposed class action from fans who sued

over a late concert start, accusing a lawyer for the plaintiffs

of misleading the court.

The pop icon's lawyer, Jeff Warshafsky, who also represents

Live Nation, said in a court filing that the ticketholders'

attorney made a "false" statement to U.S. District Judge Hector

Gonzalez in Brooklyn last Friday that there was a settlement in

the case. Warshafsky said there had been talks, but nothing was

final.

Two concert goers sued Madonna, Live Nation and Brooklyn's

Barclay's Center in January, accusing them of "a wanton exercise

in false advertising" over a nighttime show at the arena that

began two hours after its billed start time. The plaintiffs said

they would not have purchased tickets if they knew the concert

would start that late.

Plaintiffs lawyer Marcus Corwin, who submitted the

settlement notice, defended the filing at a hearing on Monday.

"I would never file something that is not factually correct," he

said. He said he believed based on prior communications that

there was a settlement.

Warshafsky said at the hearing that Corwin was waging a

"harassment campaign" aimed at "extorting a lucrative settlement

by forcing defendants to incur unnecessary legal fees."

The judge struck the settlement notice and urged the lawyers

to work towards a resolution. "There's far from a settlement,"

Gonzalez said.

"I do find this type of dealing, of getting the court

involved, is not something that I appreciate," the judge said.

Corwin and Warshafsky did not immediately respond to

requests for comment.

At the hearing, Corwin said that settlement discussions had

focused on resolving not just the lawsuit in New York but "98

other cases" and a class action in Washington, D.C. federal

court.

"Madonna has a long history of arriving and starting her

concerts late, sometimes several hours late," according to the

lawsuit in Brooklyn.

Corwin told the judge that Madonna and the other defendants

as part of the settlement talks were trying to bar his firm from

filing more claims against them. "That is something that I can't

agree to and my clients can't agree to," Corwin said.

The case is Fellows et al v. Madonna Louise Ciccone et al,

U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York,

1:24-cv-00357-HG.

For plaintiffs: Marcus Corwin of Marcus W. Corwin, P.A.

For defendants: Jeff Warshafsky of Proskauer Rose

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