Mercury News.com:  The fight over Michael Jackson's estate is just beginning.  Stay tuned.

Katherine Jackson's attorney says a judge's ruling that she can challenge the administrators of her son's estate could result in a deal that will determine control of the singer's gargantuan assets.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff determined in a ruling released Friday that Michael Jackson's mother can argue against keeping the men currently administering her son's estate without being disinherited. Those arguments would have to be laid out in further motions that the judge will decide on.

Jackson's mother, represented by L. Londell McMillan, had sought a favorable ruling from Beckloff that would allow her to contest the authority of attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain to guide the pop singer's fortune. The men were named the executors of the estate, which could be worth more than $500 million, in Michael Jackson's 2002 will.